The Bearers of the Shards
by Yamisui
Summary: The hunt for a brutal demon...Kagome with a headcold...a mysterious young lord returning to reclaim his crown...a hidden kingdom, guarded by the dead...Five bearers of the the shards converge, and the battle begins. The past is closer than you think...
1. The Hunt Begins

_Note: this story occurs after Inuyasha's second battle with Sesshoumaru and before Sango joins their group. _

**# # # THE BEARERS OF THE SHARDS # # #**

**# # Chapter 1: The Hunt Begins # #**

The night air was damp and full of dark clouds, which rolled through the village where the priestess slept. It curled slyly around doorways, between houses of stone and thatched straw, lapping boldly at the still forms of sleeping mortals who lay nearest their doors.

Through the damp gray that blanketed the village, there came the dark figure of a man. His silent stride carried him smoothly over the cold hard earth, toward the house where the priestess slept. The glow of his eyes cut through the fog like twin candles.

Where he walked, there dripped a trail of blood.

When he reached the priestess' doorway, he pushed aside the bamboo hanging fastened there and entered. Behind him drops of crimson stained the wood. His foot fell upon a loose board and the priestess woke, startled from an uneasy slumber.

"What is the meaning of this?" she hissed, watching him mistrustfully.

"Where. . ._is_. . .she?" he asked slowly, weighting each word with a warning.

The priestess pulled her blanket around her to stave off the chill and answered quietly, "She has gone."

The man's slow progression toward her ceased altogether, and his claws curled into fists.

"Shit," he said.

"Hasten to thy bed here or get out," the woman grumbled irritably. "We'll discuss it in the morning, if you still care to."

Her eyes narrowed as another figure appeared in the doorway, black against the slate gray fog. He reached one hand out toward the priestess' first intruder and clamped it over his shoulder.

The first intruder turned and swiped at the newcomer with his claws, only to find himself soundly rapped across the skull with the newcomer's staff.

"OW!" he exclaimed, backing off. "What the FUCK did you do THAT for?!"

Into the house stepped a very grumpy and disheveled-looking Miroku.

"Inu. . .yasha," he said drowsily. "_Why_. . .can't you just go to sleep. . .like the rest of us?"

Inuyasha glowered at him, rubbing the lump on his head with one hand.

"'Cause I'm not tired," he shot back. "Feh. You humans always need rest. Me, I can go all day, and all week if I feel like it."

Inuyasha's apparent pride in this ability was disrupted as Miroku's staff landed on his head once again.

"Take it outside, the lot of thee," Kaede ordered.

Miroku favored her with a gallant bow.

"Certainly, Kaede-_sama_," he said. "I was merely coming to check on you when I saw what appeared to be a demon breaking in. But now I see that it is only Inuyasha, so there was no need to worry." The monk smiled cherubically at Inuyasha, who was rubbing a lump on his head and swearing under his breath. Then, turning back to the old priestess, he added, "Where is Kagome-_sama_?"

"She returned to her own time this afternoon," Kaede replied, dryly. "And is well beyond thy reach, I might add. So there is no reason for thee to visit this humble cottage in the night."

Inuyasha was now regarding Miroku with a rather squinty-eyed expression, and one of his cheeks had developed a small twitch. Noting this, the monk elected to distract him by pointing to the thing Inuyasha carried in his right hand.

"What is that?" he asked casually.

Inuyasha looked down in perplexity, as if he'd forgotten that he carried something dripping spots of blood on the floor.

"Duck," he said in all innocence, identifying it.

Its skinny neck drooped over his fist.

"I am awareof that," Miroku said patiently. "But where did you get it?"

Inuyasha, apparently bored with the new direction their conversation was taking, pointed skyward.

"Inuyasha, tell me that you didn't pilfer that from the village pens," Miroku pleaded wearily.

"Feh," said Inuyasha, shaking the duck for emphasis. "I was trying to sleep in a tree and this noisy flock of 'em flew overhead. Then I decided I was hungry." He paused, glancing sidelong at Kaede. "Kagome likes roast duck," he added.

"Aye, that she does," Kaede said with a sigh. "But not at this hour. Go to sleep, or go away, Inuyasha."

"Well, then I shall be going," Miroku announced cheerily. He had almost made it to the door when Inuyasha caught him by his queue.

"And just _what_. . .were you doing. . ._visiting_ in the middle of the night?" Inuyasha asked with a feral grin.

"I was merely concerned for their safety," Miroku tittered, waving the matter aside. He pried his queue loose from Inuyasha's grasp and practically fled out the door.

Inuyasha scowled and yelled after him, "LIKE THEY'RE SAFE WITH _YOU_ AROUND, YOU _LECH_!"

All around the village, lights appeared in windows. The denizens of each house appeared in their doorways to see what the commotion was. Miroku had beat a hasty retreat, and they only saw one disgruntled dog demon, standing in Kaede's doorway with one hand cupped to his mouth.

A sweat drop of embarrassment appeared at his brow, and behind him he heard Kaede admonishing, "Stop barking and get thee gone."

Muttering under his breath, he took off, his feet covering yards in leaps and bounds.

He was heading for the well.

**

* * *

**

Down a crowded street, past Wacdonalds and half a dozen comic book stores a group of high-school girls pulled their unwilling companion. Nearly a block behind them, they were being shadowed by a boy on a bicycle.

"Kagome, stop dragging your feet," one of the girls ordered. "Why are you so reluctant to go home today? You're sick; you should be in bed."

Kagome didn't reply, but sniffed noisily and swiped at her nose with a tissue.

"Maybe. . .she's hoping _Houjo_ will show," another girl suggested slyly. She was one of the two trying to pull Kagome along by her elbows. "She's finally accepting his advances and _waiting_ for him for a change."

The third girl cast a calculating glance back over her shoulder.

"Speak of the devil. . ."

Suddenly Kagome's stride lengthened drastically, causing the two latched onto her to stumble in their efforts to keep up.

"Wait! What are you doing?" the third girl asked. "Have you changed your mind?"

"I'm sick," Kagome said flatly. "I should be in bed."

"Oh, no you don't," her friends cried in unison, and forced her to a halt.

"Looks like he's got something for you," the third observed. "Maybe it's medicine."

"I'll take my own medicine," Kagome protested, struggling, but then Houjo overtook them.

"Hey, Kagome!" he exclaimed, bringing his bike to a halt and waving with one hand. In the other, as always, was a gift—this time wrapped in green cellophane with pink squiggles.

Kagome eyed it dubiously, hating the squiggles.

"I've missed you," he said. "Here, I heard you had a cold."

Mechanically she accepted the proffered package.

When she didn't bother to open it, he explained, "It's an herbal remedy for head-colds. You boil and drink it."

"Why thank you," Kagome replied, trying to look pleased.

She was promptly rewarded with a dazzling smile. Houjo was like that: he smiled, and little sparkles appeared around his head. Kagome returned the smile weakly, hating the sparkles.

"O—kaaaaay, I'll just be going then," she announced, stuffing the gift into her backpack.

Then, before any of her girlfriends could stop her, she took off down the street at a walk so brisk it was almost a run.

**

* * *

**

By the time she reached the Higurashi Shrine Kagome was wheezing from eight blocks of power-walking and mouth-breathing.

'_This stupid cold_,'she thought, stopping to rest before ascending the formidable Temple stairs. '_Well, at least I'm home_.'Then it hit her.

"I'm HOME!" she cried, slapping her forehead in frustration. "How could I have forgotten? I was going to engineer a sleepover at Yuki's so Inuyasha couldn't come get me tonight."

She caught her breath and began climbing the stairs, with the air of a girl approaching the gallows.

'_Houjo ruined everything_,'she thought miserably.

For once, she actually _was _ill, and Inuyasha was coming to drag her jewel-hunting.

**

* * *

**

Inuyasha emerged from the Bone-Eaters' Well into a balmy spring evening. The trees were in full bloom, and his nostrils twitched at the pleasant smell. Upon reaching Kagome's window he found it locked, so that he couldn't just slide it open.

So he tried knocking.

"Hey, Kagome," he said through the wood. "Let's go. Open up."

When no answer came, he pulled back one fist and prepared to shatter the obstacle, but then thought better of it. If one thing made him afraid, it was seeing Kagome's face when she was angry. With a sigh because he was so put-upon, he jumped down from the ledge he was perched on and proceeded to the nearest door on the ground floor.

He didn't bother to knock—he had knocked once and that was polite enough for him. Instead he slid the door open to reveal Kagome and her family, seated around some kind of black box.

They didn't seem to have noticed him yet. One side of the box appeared to be glowing, and he guessed that they were watching the changing lights. Humans were a weird lot.

To get their attention, he imposed his mighty form between the Higurashis and their box and folded his arms to show them he meant business.

"I come for Kagome," he announced.

Kagome's grandfather and younger brother did not seem impressed by this.

"Move," Souta said.

Kagome was lying on the couch with a blanket over her and a glass stick in her mouth. She eyed him with a rather woebegone expression. Her mother was the most animated of the lot.

"Oh, it's Kagome's little friend!" she exclaimed, coming toward him.

Afraid she was going to hug him (and somewhat creeped out by the little hearts that had suddenly appeared around her face) Inuyasha dodged around her and squatted down at eye level with Kagome.

"Your time wasn't up. Why'd you leave early?"

"What do you mean, MY TIME?!" she fired back, speaking around the glass thing. "I don't have to BE there a certain number of days, you know. And it wasn't like anything big was going down while I was there."

"Kagome, why don't you ask your cute friend to dinner?" Kagome's mom suggested.

Kagome sat up, scattering blankets and Kleenex in all directions. She was wearing jeans and a very large, old sweatshirt.

"He's NOT making me go!" she insisted. "I'm sick, so I get some vacation time, okay."

"Vacation?" Inuyasha asked, holding up a tissue gingerly between two claws. "With THESE?"

Kagome snatched it from him just in time to sneeze into it. The glass stick shot out of her mouth and nearly winged Buyo the cat, who was pawing at the figures on the glowing box.

"EW, GROSS!" Inuyasha cried, fur bristling as he backed away hastily.

"That's what being sick IS!" Kagome shouted. "Believe me, you won't want me around when I'm like this! Just go back, and I'll join you when I'm better."

But Inuyasha noticed that her eyes looked a little teary, and he knew where_ that_ could lead. So he played his trump card.

"I brought you a duck," he said, holding it up by its webbed feet.

Kagome stared at it, nonplussed.

**

* * *

**

Dinner found them all seated around the Higurashis' table, feasting upon roast duck in orange sauce. Kagome's family was clearly enjoying the feast. Kagome was not.

"I'm _still_ not going back yet," she told Inuyasha, who was eating both legs at once.

"Yeah you are," he told her, around a mouthful of meat. "Your mother said you could."

Kagome glared at her mom.

"You didn't have a temperature," her mother said cheerfully. "You'll be fine. In fact, the clean air of the feudal era might even do you some good."

"Unless, of course, the weather's really nasty," Souta interjected.

Inuyasha considered a moment. The weather in his time didn't seem too cold to _him,_ and it _wasn't_ raining. . .yet.

"Weather's fine," he told them.

**

* * *

**

Half an hour later, Kagome and Inuyasha were standing on the other side of the well, in the pouring rain. Kagome's expression looked more thunderous than the clouds.

"The weather's _fine,_ eh?" she said, glowering at him.

Inuyasha, sensing malcontent, was anxious to get her back to Kaede's before she decided to turn around and go home.

"Come on, Kagome," he insisted, grabbing her by the backpack and pulling her along. "We'll be dry in the old woman's house."

Kagome slid out of the straps and headed back for the well.

"I've had enough of this," she said.

In a flash, Inuyasha was between her and her escape route. Angrily, she tried to skirt around him, but every time she moved he did also.

"Hah!" he said, looking pleased with himself. "You're staying, and that's that."

But Kagome had stopped listening to him.

"Hey. . .do you smell anything strange?" she asked.

Inuyasha, sensing diversionary tactics, took her firmly by the wrist and resumed pulling her toward the village.

"No, no, I _mean _it," she insisted, trying to pry herself loose. "I sense a jewel shard. It was nearby a second ago, and now it's moving away very fast."

Inuyasha paused, sniffing the air.

He thought he did smell something odd, but the rain made the scent very faint. It smelled vaguely familiar.

But he didn't have time to contemplate this for long. Just as he was about to ask Kagome what direction Shippou came bounding up to meet them, looking very anxious about something.

"Inuyasha, Kagome, come to the village, QUICK!" he cried. "It's terrible!"

"What is it, Shippou?" Kagome asked, catching him as he leaped into her arms.

"A demon attacked during the night!" he wailed. "It _killed_ a _whole family_, and completely destroyed their house!"

In a flash, Inuyasha was pelting back toward the village, carrying Kagome and the fox child on his back.

"Is the demon still there?" he asked as the scenery flew by.

"No," Shippou answered. "But Miroku said you had to come—the demon carried a fragment of the jewel, and will use it to kill again if it's not stopped."

**

* * *

**

When they reached the village, the rain had passed, though the skies were still blanketed in clouds. Everyone was assembled in the common, taking in the scene of carnage and destruction with frank bewilderment.

"Out of my way," Inuyasha ordered, shoving peasants aside as he made his way over to Miroku. "What happened here?"

The monk was kneeling to pray for the deceased. When he had finished, he rose and answered, "Murder." His face was very grim. "I don't need your nose to tell me it was a demon, but this demon has a very strange way of hunting."

Inuyasha looked, and was very puzzled by what he saw.

The ground was littered with debris: broken thatch, scattered stones, and among it all lay what remained of the husband and wife and young son. Inuyasha's flesh crawled at the scent of human blood, which he had come to hate, and he turned away to face Miroku to avoid the sight.

"Come with me, Inuyasha," the monk said, and Inuyasha followed as he stepped carefully through splinters of wood and human bone.

"Stay there, Kagome," Inuyasha called over his shoulder.

Kagome was standing at the forefront of the crowd of onlookers, looking very pale. In her arms, Shippou turned and buried his head in her hair.

The villagers—or Miroku, perhaps—had laid sack cloth over the dead, to preserve their dignity or perhaps just to deter the flies, which rose in small swirls of black bodies wherever the two men stepped.

"The adults were eaten—for the most part," Miroku explained with a grimace as they came to a stop in the midst of the bodies. "But the child. . ." He pointed. "Was not only eaten but completely torn apart, as if in a fit of rage. The face, in particular. . ."

Listening to them from a distance, Kagome thought, _'But why would a demon hunting for food be so particular? Why the child?'_

"Kagome_-sama_, do you sense anything we don't?" Miroku called across the wreckage.

"Any jewel shards?" Inuyasha asked. Miroku's heel planting itself on his foot made it clear that the question was a tad overeager for such a somber situation.

Kagome frowned and walked a little ways around the site, careful to keep her shoes away from the blood pooled in what had been the hut's doorway. Shippou leaped down from her arms, not wishing to be carried any nearer.

"I _do_ sense something," she said hesitantly. "But it's faint. The demon had a jewel shard, but now it's gone."

"BWAH!" Shippou cried, scampering away from something on the ground.

"What is it?" In an instant Inuyasha was at his side, to see what he was pointing at.

In the hard-packed earth were five deep claw marks, splayed in the manner of a reptile's.

"A footprint," Kagome said softly from behind him.

"Yeah, but the rain must've washed the others away," Inuyasha said grimly. "But I can still follow the stench."

"You can smell the demon's trail, Inuyasha?" Miroku asked, coming to join them.

"Of course I can!" Inuyasha exclaimed. "Kagome, get your bag. We're going shard—er—demon hunting."

While Kagome complied a mortified Miroku was left with the task of smoothing things over with the villagers.

And then, when some of the peasants had brought them supplies for their journey, the four of them set off, following Inuyasha's nose. Shippou had insisted on coming despite his previous horror—he was secretly afraid that the child-killing demon might return to the village while the others were gone.

**

* * *

**

The old priestess saw them off before returning to the sad task of burying the dead. However, as she approached the scene from the direction Inuyasha's posse had taken she began to notice something that made her grim expression deepen.

Upon the ground, barely visible in the area's rain-soaked mud, was another set of prints leading straight away from the destroyed house and mutilated bodies. It led into the marsh grasses through which the shard/vengeance seekers had passed.

"Strange," she muttered, squinting at them.

They were not large, as the reptilian claw-marks had been.

They were human.

**END OF CHAPTER 1**


	2. Elusive Quarry

**# # # THE BEARERS OF THE SHARDS # # #**

**# # Chapter 2: Elusive Quarry # #**

Four travelers slowly made their way through the watery lowlands. There was no visible sign of the demon that they hunted; there was only a wide stretch of marsh grass, swaying in the cold wind.

Inuyasha led the way, as he was the only one with an inkling of where to go. His pace had slackened somewhat since their journey had begun.

"Why won't it _rain_?" he muttered. "This place _reeks_."

The wetlands did stink---the abundance of still water was not doing much for the smell, either. Brackish mud squelched beneath their feet, smelling stagnant and foul.

"Don't wish for rain," Kagome admonished. "I've got an umbrella, but it's not big enough for all of us."

She was walking behind Inuyasha, sniffling on occasion and fishing tissues out of her knapsack. Shippou trotted along next to her, taking in the scenery with frank, wide-eyed curiosity. He was the most cheerful out of all of them, so Kagome had given him all the fruit leather out of her pack to keep him quiet.

"Is there any change in the scent trail, Inuyasha?" Miroku asked. He was bringing up the rear---partly for protection and partly so that he could watch Kagome's backside.

"Mm. . ." Inuyasha's eyes roved the hills ahead of them. "I still smell it. It smells cold-blooded, like a dragon, but not the same. It's pretty far ahead of us, though, which is why we can't see it."

Inuyasha estimated that by the end of the day they would reach the end of the valley, and traversing the hills with the humans would be a much slower process than passing through the flatter lands. He would never admit to himself, of course, that the reason for their slow pace through the fens resulted from his own weakness, which in turn resulted from the stench assailing his nose.

Of growing concern to him now was the emptiness inside him, centered on the region of his stomach. When he could stand it no more he finally stopped dead in his tracks and said, "Kagome, it's time to eat." He knew there was ramen in her pack---the savory scent of it had been the one thing keeping the swamp stench at bay.

Kagome, who had almost tripped over him when he stopped, looked around and said, "_Here_? I don't see any rocks. Or any dry ground, for that matter."

"It's not so bad," Inuyasha insisted, plopping right down in the mud with a resounding squelch. Evidently his hunger was more pressing than his distaste for his surroundings.

"Inuyasha, we really should---" Miroku began, but the half-demon had folded his arms and did not appear willing to budge. The monk gave up with a sigh and squatted down, carefully hoisting the bottom of his robes onto his knees to avoid the brackish mess at his feet.

Shippou made himself useful and gathered an armful of grass for Kagome to kneel on while she ate, and she fished dinner out of her backpack with an air of resignation.

Miroku then produced some reed stalks that he had found nearby and some stones, and fashioned them into a hearth of sorts. Then Kagome held a lighter from her pack to the pile and set it aflame. It took a moment because the reeds were damp, and the others gathered round to watch with interest. Inuyasha, of course, only had eyes for the ramen in the cup on Kagome's lap.

"Ah, Lady Kagome, what would we do without you?" Miroku exclaimed when she had finally succeeded in starting the fire.

"Work for your food?" she suggested.

Within moments the skies had begun to let loose.

In a flash, Kagome had her umbrella in an upright locked position, and Shippou had clambered onto her lap. Miroku looked as if he wanted to follow Shippou but was distracted by a sudden outburst from Inuyasha.

"What're you DOING?" Inuyasha cried. "Fucking putting it away! The rain doesn't make ME any less hungry."

"We can't cook it without a fire," Kagome explained patiently as she prepared to slip the ramen back into her bag. "Unless _you_ want to eat it as is."

Expectantly, Inuyasha extended a hand toward the ramen package.

"I'm _not_ wasting this," Kagome insisted, zipping up her pack and standing up. "We'll eat it when we can cook it. And that's _not_ until we get to some shelter."

Inuyasha leaped to his feet.

"If we hurry, we can reach those trees up there by nightfall," he exclaimed, with renewed zeal.

**

* * *

**

"Inuyasha," Miroku said, much later, "we shouldn't keep stopping like that during the day. There may be villages on the other side of those hills, and we can't let the demon get too far ahead of us."

Inuyasha nodded, sobered for once by the monk's warning. The trail was growing fainter already, and they had almost reached the trees at the end of the valley. This meant that the demon had already started back into the hills. It seemed to him that he could always be certain of its direction; it seemed to be traveling unerringly to the south. In fact, its course appeared to be a straight shot to the south, without the slightest sign of deviation for shelter or sleep. This demon, whatever it was, was driven.

Once they had reached the trees he noticed more footprints like the one in Kaede's village, preserved there because the trees gave the ground shelter. The group was forced to stop there for the night, because humans were slow like that. But to Inuyasha, time to stop for the night meant time for ramen.

He cast a watchful eye toward Kagome and was rewarded with the sight of her cooking over a fire the long-awaited chicken-flavored noodles. Then, satisfied that she was finally getting down to what was important, he moved off to squat down by the tracks and get a better look at them.

They were wider apart than the stride lengths of a man, but not immensely so. Inuyasha nodded to himself, figuring that he could take this demon down easily. Then his nose happened to catch the scent of demon that wafted up from the prints. Frowning, he bent closer to sniff again.

"Don't fall in," Shippou warned, appearing beside him.

"Shut up, I'm trying to smell," Inuyasha said, and drew in a deep whiff of the scent.

"You do smell," Shippou agreed, but Inuyasha ignored him. Bored, the fox trotted back to join Kagome and to hover over the cooking pot.

'_Weird_,' he thought, placing his hand into the footprint. '_It smells like several things combined. There's the smell of the reptile-thing, and the smell of a pure demon. . .and also. . ."_

"What is it, Inuyasha?" Miroku had come to stand behind him. The monk had removed his outer robes and hung them from a tree branch to dry.

"I was just thinking. . ." Inuyasha began, but stopped, puzzled.

"What is it?" Miroku repeated, squatting down beside him and frowning at the claw furrows in the earth.

"There are three parts to this scent," Inuyasha said, scratching his head with his own claws. "There's the one from the village---the one that smells like it SHOULD make a print like this. . . And there's also the strong smell of powerful, pure-blooded demon. And the third. . .I never noticed it until I found these, but it almost smells human."

"A _hanyou_?" Miroku suggested delicately.

"No, because it smells like pure demon," Inuyasha snapped. He always became grumpy at the mention of the word "_hanyou_." "It's more like there are three separate scents in one place. Which doesn't make much sense. . ."

"Naraku," Miroku said quietly.

"No, not him," Inuyasha shook his head. "He can change his form, but never his scent, and it's not him. . ."

"Dinner!" Kagome called, and in a flash both monk and _hanyou_ were up and running.

**

* * *

**

"Inuyasha says there's something odd about the scent we're chasing," Miroku told Kagome across the fire, around which all four of them were huddled. Inuyasha and Shippou were shoveling ramen into their faces as fast as their chopsticks would allow.

"Well, of course there is," Kagome said, sipping at her bowl of soup and sniffling. "It's a demon and it kills people. There's nothing normal about _that_."

"Well, he says it smells like a reptile, a pure demon, and a human all at once," Miroku told her, unfazed by the sarcasm.

Kagome frowned. "Yeah, you're right, that _is_----" She broke off into a sneezing fit.

Inuyasha's chopsticks ceased their shoveling and he paused, noodles trailing down his chin. "Hey, you didn't sneeze in the _soup_, did you?" he asked suspiciously.

"Of course not!" Kagome protested. Her nose had turned pink from all the sneezing.

Inuyasha went back to his feeding frenzy while she took out a tissue and blew her nose. Apparently this was too much for Shippou, who edged away from her to finish his dinner at a safe distance.

"Thad _is_ weird," she told Miroku. "The smell, I mead."

"Inuyasha, have you considered the possibility that there might be more than one demon?" Miroku asked.

Inuyasha just looked at him, never once ceasing his ramen shoveling.

"Iduyasha, this is IMBORDAND," Kagome

"_Now_ what's wrong with you?" Inuyasha asked, slurping up the last of his meal. "You sound funny."

"I HAB A CODE!" she snapped. "How many times do I hab to _tell_ you? By dose is stubbed ub."

"Feh," Inuyasha muttered. He settled into a cross-legged position, making ready to watch over them for the night. He kept sending Kagome sidelong glances full of suspicion, as if he thought she might sneeze in his direction.

"Lady Kagome, are you sure you're up to this?" Miroku asked soliticiously, edging closer to her side of the fire.

"Of course she is," Inuyasha said, watching the monk's progress warily. "I need her with me."

This earned him a smile from both of them, so he hastily added, "The demon's got a shard, remember?" In the silence that followed his face reddened and he looked away.

"Where's Shippou?" Kagome asked suddenly. "When did he slip off?"

At that moment the fox in question came hurtling through the trees.

"I saw it!" he cried. "I went off to pee, and I SAW it!"

"Where?" Inuyasha asked, up in a flash. "Where did you see it?"

"I was up in a tree and I saw it standing on top of the hill over there." Shippou pointed a finger in the general southward direction.

"He likes to relieve himself in trees?" Miroku whispered to Kagome, who looked somewhat grossed out.

"It was TALL," Shippou went on, eyes huge as saucers. "It was standing on the hill, wearing man-shape. It looked right AT me; I KNOW it SAW me! Its eyes were red."

Inuyasha was on his feet in an instant.

"Kagome, pack up your stuff again," he told her over his shoulder. "We're moving out. I could bring this thing down _tonight_!"

**

* * *

**

It had begun raining again in earnest, but Kagome was forced to put her umbrella away because she needed both hands to ascend the hill Shippou led them to. Thus the middle of the night found three of them slogging up the steep slope in sopping wet clothing and the lowest of spirits. Inuyasha had made the top in five bounds, of course, and took off down the other side, leaving Shippou and the two humans in his dust.

By the time they reached the top it was raining so hard that they couldn't see what lay down the other side.

"Where's Inuyasha?" Shippou asked, shielding his eyes from the rain with his tiny paws.

"Oh DO!" Kagome exclaimed. "I'b oud of tissues ALREADY. Miroku, gib me your sleeb."

Before the monk could utter a word of protest she had grabbed hold of his arm and sneezed into the folds of his robes.

"Oh, GROSS!" Shippou crowed in delight.

"Stand back," Miroku said abruptly, forgetting the sleeve for moment. "Someone's coming."

Obediently Kagome and Shippou moved behind him as he poised a wary hand over the prayer beads that restrained his wind tunnel. Someone tall, with very long white hair was making his way up the opposite side of the hill toward them.

As he drew nearer, however, Miroku relaxed and lowered his right arm.

"Oh, it's you Inuyasha," he said, sounding relieved. "I feared for a moment that it might be Sesshoumaru."

Inuyasha glared at the monk, looking rather sodden and miserable himself.

"Feh," he said. "Don't compare _me_ to that moon-headed buttmunch." Then his glare melted away, to be replaced with a look of puzzlement. "I've lost the scent," he said, almost wonderingly. "It's completely gone, like it disappeared off the face of the earth or something."

"Iduyasha, id's okay," Kagome told him, moving out from behind Miroku. "We'll just go south. Thad's where the debon is goig, isn't id? And id hasn't disappeared, because I cad still sense the Sacred Jewel."

Looking a little more cheerful, Inuyasha grabbed Kagome by the hand and started pulling her down the hill after him.

"Come on," he urged. "There are more trees down there. We'll make camp again."

Then Inuyasha paused, glancing back over his shoulder.

"What's with _him_?" he asked, referring to Miroku.

The monk was kneeling in the wet grass, rubbing his sleeve against it with frenzied determination.

**

* * *

**

"Hey, Kagome, you sound better now," Shippou observed when they had reached the trees at the bottom of the hill.

"Yeah, but I feel worse," she replied. By this time she was leaning on Inuyasha to keep herself upright (which he didn't seem to mind), and her eyelids were lowered to half-mast.

"Inuyasha, I think you've pushed her too hard in her condition," Miroku put in blandly. "She's sick, and it _is_ very cold and wet after all." He seemed to have gotten past the sneezing incident.

"But you're warm, aren't you, Kagome?" Inuyasha asked, helping her onto a nearby rock. "You don't _seem_ cold."

"I _feel_ cold," she insisted. "Just get my sleeping bag unrolled while I take some medicine. Shippou, get my backpack, will you?"

She sat on the rock watching dully as the Kitsune scurried off to do her bidding. Meanwhile, Inuyasha had encountered the knot she'd tied in the rope holding her sleeping bag in a roll, and it seemed his claws just weren't nimble enough to untie it. He tried pulling on the rope, and of course this only made things worse, so he curved his claws and prepared to slice the thing off. Fortunately, Miroku managed to catch hold of Inuyasha's wrist before he could completely dismember his Arch-Nemesis the Knot. The monk managed to get it undone and unrolled the sleeping bag, and laid it out in what he judged to be the flattest, driest spot in the area---coincidentally nearest his own elected sleeping spot.

Kagome fished the medicine Houjo had given her out of her pack, poured some into the cap, and took a swig.

"Wow, Kagome, what an awful face," Shippou remarked, watching the contortions that followed. "Must be some nasty stuff."

Kagome didn't reply but recapped the bottle and staggered over to the sleeping bag. It didn't take her long to fall asleep once snugly inside it. She had finally been done in by the combination of illness and lack of sleep, but mostly from the Sleep-Tite ™ Herbal Cold Remedy.

Inuyasha and Miroku stood at her feet, looking down at her.

"She's feverish," Miroku observed. "Someone should keep her warm."

Inuyasha glanced over at him.

"WILL YOU PUT YOUR FUCKING SHIRT ON?" he snapped.

The monk was naked to the waist, having doffed his outer robes and shirt.

"It's wet," he explained mildly. "I'm waiting until it dries."

"Hmm. . ." Inuyasha rubbed his chin. "Well, maybe you _can_ make yourself useful."

"Really?" Miroku asked, looking interested.

Inuyasha looked down at Kagome. "You can go find us some dry firewood. To keep her warm with."

With a faint sigh of disappointment Miroku wandered off to collect some kindling. Meanwhile, Inuyasha squatted down at Kagome's side.

"She really SHOULD be kept warm," Shippou remarked from behind him. "And Miroku's not the one to do it."

Inuyasha, who had been watching Kagome's sleeping face intently, suddenly became flustered.

"Well, YOU do it then!" he barked at Shippou, but he didn't budge from his spot, either.

The Kitsune sighed heavily and rolled his eyes.

"Inuyasha, I'm not big enough. And besides," he added in a world-wise tone, "there's no harm in sleeping with someone, is there? I LIKE sleeping with Kagome."

Inuyasha's face apparently sprouted danger signs, because Shippou didn't say anything more but suddenly became engrossed in making himself a bed of leaves nearby. Inuyasha squatted there a moment longer, considering, and then he reached out a hand and rested it upon the sleeping bag next to Kagome. He tensed, looking at her as if he expected her to attack, but she just went on sleeping, so he put his full weight on the arm and eased down next to her.

**

* * *

**

Half an hour later, Shippou was slumbering on his bed of leaves, Miroku still wasn't back and Kagome half-awoke to see Inuyasha's face lying next to hers.

On an impulse, she reached out to touch his hair, but instead her fingers found the prayer beads around his neck. She became a little more awake, and her hand lingered there thoughtfully. '_I put these here to keep him from betraying me_,' she thought vaguely, frowning. '_But he's changed so much. . . I trust him now. After all we've been through. . ._' She recalled the way he had embraced her by the well after his last battle with Sesshoumaru. Of course, he had then proceeded to take her jewel shards and fling her down the well, but that had been for her own good, hadn't it?

Her fingers strengthened their grasp on the beads, and when she pulled they parted like water around Inuyasha's neck. She lay there a moment, holding up the necklace and staring at it in the semidarkness.

'_He doesn't need these_,' she thought, and stuffed them into the pocket of her jacket, which was lying nearby. '_Not any more. . .'_

**

* * *

**

At the same time Miroku was making his way back to camp after the long search for firewood in the rain, the slight figure of a human boy slipped through the trees. He had seen the half-demon in the forest, and moved quietly to avoid attracting attention, for he feared and hated demons. In the shadow of a great oak, less than fifty yards away, a man stood watching, silently, wearing a slight smile. In his hand he held a shard of the Shikon Jewel.

When the boy had passed from view, his silent watcher cast one thoughtful glance back toward the camp where the half-demon slept, then turned and began to walk. Through the darkness he followed the boy, with all the grace and leisure of a predator stalking its kill.

**END OF CHAPTER 2**


	3. The Kirin and the Shard

_Notes: An "oufuda" is a paper with a charm or spell written on it. A "kehai" is like an aura or magical residue left by the presence of something very powerful or possessing very strong emotions. "Houshi" is a monk of lowest rank----or Miroku, to be specific. "Hanyou," for those of you who don't know, means "half-demon." "Kenatsu" refers to the energy surrounding something that magnifies the object's powers._

**# # # THE BEARERS OF THE SHARDS # # #**

**# # Chapter 3: The Kirin and the Shard # #**

Through the wood the creature ran, glinting white in the moonlight as it passed between the trees. There was no place for it to conceal itself in the night, for its hide gleamed the color of pearls, and its eyes shone like twin stars, undimmed by the surrounding shadows. For a moment, the pounding of its hooves upon the earth were the only sound in the wood.

And then, crashing through the underbrush came its pursuer: a roiling mass of flesh that flowed between the trees like a tide of darkness. From that flesh faces protruded: demons and monsters---some hideous; some beautiful beyond description---all of them violet-eyed and full of hatred. And then, having taken form from the seething mass, they melted back into it to some unknown depth, disappearing with all the fleetness of shadows.

The white beast's long, graceful legs carried it swiftly over the forest turf, but the monster drew ever nearer. And the creature was running out of ground to cover. Ahead lay a deep chasm, cut through the land by the river in its depths. The monster pursuing it slackened its pace, seeing that its quarry had nowhere to run. Yet the white beast, though it had run long and hard, had strength in it yet. The muscles in its hind legs bunched and bent, then straightened, and it was airborne, sailing over the chasm as if on wings.

The monster's grasping tentacles flailed after it, whipping through the air with wicked force, but somehow it eluded their clutches to land smoothly upon the opposite side. The dark tide of flesh attempted to span the ravine with its own body, but recoiled instantly as if burned. The white beast stood silently for a moment, watching the enemy with eyes bright as diamonds. Then it turned and fled into the woods on the other side, knowing itself to be safe for a time---until the enemy found a way to cross the holy river's barrier.

Suddenly the monster was gone, swallowed into itself until no trace of it remained. Then there was only a man standing there, upon the edge of the chasm. His face was angular, sly, and ever-shifting: the face of a thief. Yet though he wore the rich raiment of a prince, he cared very little for wealth itself.

The object of his desires now lay across the river, safe from him for the moment.

'_Yet it won't elude me for long_,' he thought, lips curved into a mirthless smile. _'There are other ways to cross._'

He did not move away immediately, though, but stood there deep in thought. His violet eyes burned into the night, as if to pierce the veil of trees through which his quarry had fled.

"Disgusting," he said softly, staring. "They say the beast is purity itself."

His eyes narrowed, and he went silent.

'_It moves ever southward, despite my attempts to corner it_,' he thought grimly. '_Something draws it there; what, I do not know_.' He brushed back his long hair back from his eyes, his smile slowly returning. '_It matters not. The beast carries something that I want. I will not be denied.'_

**

* * *

**

Slipping dream-like through the forest, the white beast ran southward. Nothing would deter it from its singularity of purpose---not even the enemy. For to the south lay a head, waiting to be crowned.

Upon the creature's own brow there rose a crown of a different sort: a great silver spire, reaching toward the very heavens where the beast had been born.

Inserted into this accoutrement was a tiny shard of the Sacred Jewel.

**

* * *

**

The first thing Inuyasha saw, upon opening his eyes, was a blinding ray of morning sunlight shining directly in his face. He shifted, squinting, and the second thing he saw was Miroku sitting nearby. The monk was leaning against a tree, watching him with an expression of great amusement.

"So," Miroku drawled. "How was it?"

Inuyasha yawned, baring his fangs, then lay there, blinking groggily. And then, when comprehension dawned. . .

"_HEY_, IT'S NOT LIKE I'M _INSIDE_ THE FUCKING SLEEPING BAG!" he cried, hoisting himself up onto his elbows so he could glare at Miroku.

"Hush, you'll wake her," Miroku cautioned, holding a finger to his lips. "And what would _she_ think?"

Looking as if this thought had just occurred to him, Inuyasha glanced down at Kagome's sleeping face.

At that moment, she flung out an arm, caught him around the neck, and pulled him close to her. Inuyasha, once again lying prone on the ground, looked stunned and quite unsure of what to do next.

"Mph," she mumbled, squeezing him close. "Buyo. . ."

"WHAT did you call me?" Inuyasha demanded, quite forgetting that he was lying inches away from her face.

By some miracle she didn't awaken, but ran her nails through his hair.

"Buyo," she said again.

Miroku had lost his smirk, and seemed to be at a loss for words for once.

This was too much. Inuyasha sat up abruptly, hair bristling. Kagome's arm fell limply onto the sleeping bag.

"WHO THE FUCK IS '_BUYO_'?!!" he yelled.

Kagome's eyes flew open, and she was on her feet in a flash. However, she was still practically mummified in the sleeping bag, so she immediately fell over backward on her rear end.

"WELL?" Inuyasha insisted, advancing on her. He had yet to notice the menace that now clung to the air around her.

Slowly, she sat up, hair sticking out at odd angles. Her expression was halfway between fright and prelude to explosion.

"What's. . .going. . ._ON_?" she asked slowly, glaring at Inuyasha.

Not about to be intimidated, he moved over and crouched down next to her, pointing an accusatory finger in her direction.

"So who's this 'Buyo,' _EH_, Kagome? Is there something you'd like to TELL us?"

Kagome was so surprised that she was struck speechless for a moment. Then she seemed to regain her composure.

"Inuyasha, where did you hear that name?" she asked him calmly.

His face reddened, and the accusatory finger drooped away.

"You said it when you---that is---when I was---oh, forget it." He turned away in a huff.

Kagome watched him as he rose and turned away. She seemed to be trying very hard not to laugh.

"I'll tell you," she said primly, "when you're ready to explain _yourself_."

"Shaddup," he fired back. "All right, you lot. I smell the demon again, so get ready to move out."

Miroku and a groggy-looking Shippou stared at Inuyasha as he issued this mandate: a noticeable tic had developed in the muscle just under his left eye.

**

* * *

**

Half an hour later, they were off and running through the forest---Miroku running with Shippou on his back and Inuyasha with Kagome on his. He was very grumpy; the tic hadn't gone away.

Kagome's cold seemed to have improved somewhat during the night---now, at least, she had time to turn her head away from his hair whenever she sneezed. (Shippou had collected some leaves for her to use in place of the depleted tissue supply.)

The sunny weather gave no indication that it was going to change anytime soon, and Kagome counted her blessings as she was jounced along on Inuyasha's back.

There had been more signs of the demon because the rain had let up, and from the freshness of the tracks Inuyasha seemed hopeful that they would overtake it that night.

Privately, Kagome was not so sure she _wanted_ to overtake it. Aside from its bloodlust, it also seemed to be immensely strong. They passed through places in the forest where even the thickest stands of bamboo had been torn asunder and flung to either side. There were deep claw marks on the thick stalks. Very little remained of the _trees_ the demon had destroyed---jumbled splinters of bark, strewn across the path.

Echoing her thoughts, Miroku murmured, "What mindless rage would drive it to destroy everything in its path? There's no _reason_ behind all this. . ."

"Heh," Inuyasha laughed harshly. "Demons don't need a _reason_ for their hatred. When you're that powerful, every feeling you have, every passion of yours. . .leaves a mark on the world around you. That's why tracking this thing is so fucking easy."

"I'd say it's certainly made its desires apparent," Miroku commented thoughtfully. "We know it bears an exceptional grudge toward human children; it chooses to kill unnecessarily in that instance. We know something vital lies to the south, because it destroys everything obstacle in its path."

"But we also know the limits of its strength," Kagome said suddenly, "because none of the hills have been destroyed, and those are certainly in its way. And we know it's afraid of _something_, because at night it hides itself away somehow where you can't pick up its scent."

"Hey, you guys, watch where you're going," Shippou cried.

Inuyasha halted mid-stride, one foot poised to step out over the chasm in front of him. Kagome looked down over his shoulder and screamed.

"_Kyaaaaaah_!"

"STOP THAT FUCKING NOISE!" Inuyasha demanded, stepping back into a safer position. "I wouldn't let you fall!"

"You can ride me instead," Miroku offered from behind them.

This earned him a glare from both of them---Inuyasha's punctuated by the persistent twitch under his eye.

"What river is this?" Kagome asked. She climbed down from Inuyasha's back and fished a map out of her pack. "I don't see it here anywhere."

"Eh? River?" Inuyasha peered down into the depths of the ravine and espied the silver ribbon of water cutting through its shadows. He crouched down, staring at it intently.

Miroku had put Shippou down, and was now investigating the area. He fingered the broken twigs on a nearby tree, then bent to examine the hoof-prints that he had noticed hidden amongst the leaves.

"Something unusual has passed this way," he observed, tracing one print with two fingers. He placed an _oufuda_ upon it with the other hand, and abruptly the tracks that came after it became visible. They shone with the unearthly light of the monk's power, leading to the very edge of the chasm.

"A horse?" Kagome suggested, puzzled. "Why would it jump? It must have really been panicked."

"Something was chasing it," Miroku said grimly. "The twigs were broken on trees over here as well. . ." He pointed to a stand of cherry trees ten feet away from the first. "The horse---or whatever it was---had a very large enemy."

"Look, it made it to the other side," Shippou interrupted, pointing excitedly to the opposite edge of the ravine. "Your _oufuda _lit up the hoof-prints over there, too."

Miroku and Kagome followed his pointing finger and saw that the shining tracks led off into the forest there.

"The _kehai_ left with the tracks is good," Miroku said. "In fact, I detect no evil in it at all. But on the trees. . . The pursuer leaves a _kehai_ that is distinctly dark."

"They aren't far off, either," Kagome murmured, her eyes taking on a far-away look. "I can still sense the Shikon shards. One of them has some. . .no, a _lot_ of them. . ."

"Naraku was here," Inuyasha said, unexpectedly. He was still crouching at the chasm's edge, staring fixedly at the river. "I'd know that stench anywhere." He frowned, then straightened and rose to his feet.

"Is something wrong, Inuyasha?" Miroku asked, coming to stand beside him.

Reluctantly, Inuyasha turned away from the edge.

"Nothing. This place just seems familiar, is all." There was a strange note to his voice that belied greater meaning, but the monk knew better than to pursue something the _hanyou _didn't want to reveal.

Miroku held his staff out over the chasm, and the rings around its head jangled inexplicably. A great wind rose suddenly, ruffling the monk's sleeve, then subsided as quickly as it had come. He quickly withdrew the staff.

"There is a powerful warding spell on this river," he noted. "We can cross, I think, but I doubt Naraku was able to."

"Well, then let's get across," Inuyasha said gruffly. "C'mon, Kagome."

Obediently she climbed onto his back and he leaped across the gap. Strangely enough, no wind arose with his passage; nor when he leaped back across to help Miroku and Shippou. When he re-crossed the chasm with both of them in tow, the wind _did _arise.

"Interesting," Miroku murmured, looking thoughtful. "Did you notice---?"

"Cram it, _houshi_," Inuyasha snapped.

And then, of course, they were off.

**

* * *

**

Two days of relatively uneventful travel passed. The scent trail of the dragon-footed demon remained clear as ever. The rains picked up again, making Kagome's cold worse and everyone crankier in general. Whenever Miroku brought up the phenomenon of the chasm warding Inuyasha responded by coldly ignoring him.

'_It's not like him,_' Kagome thought worriedly. _'I much prefer him when he's threatening physical violence to THIS. . . He must really be hiding something for it to make him act this way.'_

Inuyasha's twitch hadn't gone away, but he was in such a foul mood that he wouldn't let Kagome get him alone to talk. At night he took extra care to sleep at least ten feet away from her, all the while sending her suspicious glances whenever she zipped herself into her sleeping bag.

Then, on the third day, Inuyasha picked up Naraku's scent and bolted on ahead, leaving Miroku and Shippou in his dust. Kagome clung on for dear life, because hatred of the enemy had given wings to the hanyou's feet.

They finally skidded to a halt in a clearing---or, rather, the site where the battle underway had destroyed the surrounding foliage. Naraku---taking on the form of a man, save for the scythes protruding from his elbows where his arms should've been---seemed to have cornered his intended prey. A white horse, bearing upon its head one horn, pawed at the ground and then reared, striking at its enemy with its front hooves. Its blows left deep runnels in the hard-packed earth, and when its horn happened to touch Naraku, he flinched away as if burned by it. At its back was a stand of bamboo, too dense to allow it to escape.

Embedded in its horn was a Shikon shard.

"_Naraku_," Inuyasha growled, cracking his knuckles in anticipation. "Long time, no see."

"Leave it alone!" Kagome replied, addressing Naraku and referring to the white beast.

"Inuyasha," Naraku breathed, and in a great explosion of flesh discarded his humanoid form.

"I HATE spiders," Kagome cried in horror and disgust.

Inuyasha shoved her aside and into the trees, and then flew at the enormous multi-eyed spider, which reared overhead. (All of its eyes were violet.) He drew Tetsusaiga and swung at it, but though the thing was big it wasn't slow. In a flash it had dodged the attack, and bore down suddenly upon its original prey.

"_The ssssshard,"_ the spider hissed, clacking its mandibles. "_I will have it."_

One of Naraku's legs stabbed downward. The white beast moved swiftly, but nonetheless its enemy scored a glancing blow, leaving a wicked-looking gash in its heaving side. It screamed: a high, pure note of rage and pain.

And then Inuyasha was moving, swinging Tetsusaiga once more.

"Shape-shifting BASTARD," he snarled. "Don't you ever get tired of fucking PURPLE? _TET---SUSAIGA_!"

The blade's _kenatsu_ nearly clove the spider in two. The carcass crashed to the forest floor, scattering dead leaves in every direction.

"Oh, my, a _kirin_!" Miroku exclaimed. He had just emerged onto the scene, closely followed by Kagome, who was carrying Shippou.

"A what?" Inuyasha asked, wiping purple gore off his blade and onto the grass, which promptly withered.

The beast paced nervously back and forth---Inuyasha and the carcass stood between it and its escape route. The _hanyou_ wasn't about to let it leave just yet; not while it possessed a jewel shard.

"A _kirin_," Miroku repeated, approaching it cautiously.

It watched him warily with its fierce, diamond eyes.

"It is the purest creature to walk the earth," he went on. "It is said that the_ kirin_ is only sent down from Heaven when it comes time to choose a new ruler. The creature then ordains that ruler by kneeling before him." He paused, frowning. "Though why it's using a Shikon shard is beyond me. . ."

"It's beautiful," Kagome breathed, approaching it as well.

"Can you eat it?" Inuyasha inquired.

"NO!" Kagome and Miroku cried at once, horrified.

Inuyasha shrugged and got to his feet, slinging Tetsusaiga over one shoulder.

"Well, too bad. It'll have to be wasted when I kill it for the Shikon shard."

Miroku chose that moment to crack him over the head with his staff.

"UWHAAA!" Inuyasha cried, thudding noisily to the ground.

The _kirin_, wasting no time, sprang over his prone body and galloped off. It skirted around the bamboo grove and then returned to its previous course.

"It's heading due south," Kagome observed. "How odd; just like the demon we're tracking."

"And Naraku's heading south as well, pursuing it for its jewel shard," Miroku added. "Sooner or later they're going to cross paths with our quarry. Hopefully one will kill the other off."

Kagome's gaze became narrow and steely-eyed.

"Excluding the _kirin_, I mean," he amended hastily.

"Hey, Kagome, where's Naraku's shard?" Inuyasha asked, rubbing his head and looking sore in more ways than one. "You sensed he had one, right?"

"Up its butt," she snapped, still miffed at him for wanting to eat the _kirin_.

Miroku looked quite surprised, and Shippou's eyes went luminous with mirth.

"I'm _serious_!" Inuyasha told her.

"So am I," she replied. "It really _is_---"

Inuyasha frowned at her suspiciously. "You're lying."

"Certainly _not_," she said crossly. "And in case you're wondering, I am _not_ going to be the one to get it."

"Feh," Inuyasha muttered, eyeing the spider's enormous purple abdomen with obvious distaste.

But in the end he dug it out with both arms and his sword, and after presenting it to her made a run for the nearest brook to bathe.

**

* * *

**

That night, with the rain pattering softly on the leaves above, the group sat huddled around the campfire. Shippou was recounting in vivid, gruesome detail the earlier shard extraction process for Inuyasha's benefit, while Miroku listened with poorly-disguised amusement. Inuyasha was shoveling ramen into his mouth and trying to appear unruffled by it all. He still had the tic.

Kagome was poring over her maps once again, squinting at the tiny lines and squiggles. Ever so often she would turn away from it to sneeze, but for the most part she remained intent upon her task.

"Is that for an 'exam' in your 'geography' studies?" Miroku asked politely.

"No," she replied. "But it's weird. I'm looking at these maps of feudal Japan that I brought, and apparently there's nothing special to the south. If we're _here_ she pointed to a dot on the map near a squiggle then straight ahead of us there's nothing but some mountains and a lake beyond them. That's down _here_ she pointed to a very large wavy spot surrounded by squiggles."

"Say, Inuyasha," Miroku said slyly, looking up. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about this, would you? You said this territory seemed familiar to you. . ."

"I said the _river_ seemed---oh, fuck off," Inuyasha finished irritably, not about to be tricked into revealing whatever it was he was keeping to himself.

"So why are the demon and the _kirin_ heading along the same course?" Kagome mused. "Villages are scarce down there, so there's not much human prey for the demon. Neither are there any kingdoms for the _kirin_ to visit."

All of them were quiet for a while. Inuyasha gradually grew more and more fidgety (and the twitch more pronounced), until he finally heaved a great sigh of resignation and opened his mouth to speak.

But before he could utter a single word, he paused, sniffed the air, and was instantly on his feet, blade in hand.

"SHOW YOURSELF," he called into the darkness of the trees. "Or I come after you and wipe the ground with your guts."

Out from behind a large oak tree there stepped a very scared-looking human boy. He looked to be about twelve or thirteen years of age, though it was difficult to tell because he was painfully thin. He wore a very torn and dirty _hakama _and nothing else.

"My name's Yaburenumaru," he stammered. "Can you please help me? I'm lost."

Inuyasha sniffed the air, then replaced Tetsusaiga into its sheath.

"He's only human," he announced. "The only blood I smell is his own."

Yaburenumaru sank to his knees, shuddering. Across his back and left shoulder there stretched an ugly, bloody weal, as if someone had struck him there with a whip.

"I have to return home," he whispered. "I am the_ rightful_ lord."

Kagome hastened to his side, overcome by pity.

'_The "rightful lord?"_' she thought, putting an arm around his waist and helping him over toward the fire. '_Then is HE the one. . .that the kirin is searching for. . .?'_

**END OF CHAPTER 3**


	4. Why Demons and Caffeine Shouldn't Mix

**# # # THE BEARERS OF THE SHARDS # # #**

**# # Chapter 4: Why Demons and Caffeine Shouldn't Mix # #**

Where once there were four, now five were seated around the campfire for dinner. Miroku cooked up some more ramen for their guest while Kagome tended to his wounds. Shippou watched with fascination as she cleaned the long weal on Yaburenumaru's back.

"Wow," the Kitsune exclaimed in hushed tones. "There's so much BLOOD."

"Go get a candy bar out of my backpack," Kagome ordered without looking at him. "There should be one more left."

Happily, the Kitsune danced off to obey. Inuyasha sat on the far side of the fire, sulking. He didn't seem to like the boy, and the feeling seemed to be mutual.

Periodically he sniffed in Yaburenumaru's direction, screwing up his face in poorly-concealed perplexity. The boy smelled human all right, but to Inuyasha he seemed shiftier than the average kid. He also didn't like Kagome's hands on Yaburenumaru's flesh.

The boy himself seemed ill at ease under Inuyasha's stare---he was probably not reassured by the persistent tic under Inuyasha's left eye.

"That's quite a name you've got there, runt," Inuyasha remarked. "Longer than you are tall."

"It's my family name," Yaburenumaru replied shortly. He spoke out of the side of his mouth, and would not look the hanyou in the eye.

"You're heir to your family's lands, aren't you?" Kagome asked, looking thoughtful as she sprayed disinfectant on his wound. "What happened? Did someone kidnap you?"

"I guess you could say that," he replied with a shrug, glancing over his shoulder at her and cracking a wan smile.

She handed him a bottle of water.

"Here, drink something. You look parched."

Inuyasha leaned back against a tree, folding his arms.

"I suppose your name means 'unbreakable' because your family line thinks it's invincible, huh?" he sneered.

Yaburenumaru stiffened.

"My lineage _is_ unbreakable, because I am returning to become its lord," he snapped. "My family is very noble, and very old. Our lineage is something that no one---man _or_ demon---will _ever_ put asunder."

"Feh," Inuyasha jeered, but his heart didn't seem to be in it. He seemed slightly unnerved by Yaburenumaru's sudden outburst.

"But you haven't inherited your title yet, have you?" Kagome asked the boy, winding a bandage around his shoulder and middle. "Does your kingdom lie to the south? There is a_ kirin_ traveling in that direction."

Yaburenumaru's head slowly lifted. The muscles in his back knotted beneath her hands.

"A. . ._kirin_, you say?" he murmured. "Journeying south? You have seen it?"

"Yes," Kagome answered, frowning at the strangeness in his tone.

"Then I must hurry, to overtake it before it reaches my father's lands," he said in a low voice.

He brushed Kagome aside and rose shakily to his feet. Miroku caught him by the arm, though before he could walk away. Yaburenumaru stopped, glancing down at the monk's hand with narrowed eyes.

"An odd place to be wearing prayer beads," he remarked. But he did not try to escape Miroku's grip.

"You shouldn't be traveling alone, especially in your condition," Miroku admonished.

"At least stay the night with us," Kagome urged, indicating a space by the fire. "There is a terrible demon on the loose."

"We're hunting it," Shippou chimed in. His mouth was covered in chocolate.

"Indeed?" Yaburenumaru seated himself beside the fire, gazing at Inuyasha with renewed interest. "Since when do you hunt your own kind?"

"Since they started carrying shards of the Shikon Jewel," Inuyasha answered bluntly.

Miroku shot a glare his way, but the_ hanyou_ ignored it.

"The Shikon Jewel, you say?" Yaburenumaru murmured. "I've heard of it."

Kagome placed a blanket around his thin shoulders, but he scarcely seemed to notice. His gaze upon Inuyasha was intense---almost hungry. Inuyasha didn't like it.

"Yeah, you and half of Japan," he shot back. "What's it to _you_?"

Yaburenumaru smiled faintly, folding his hands in his lap. A lock of hair fell down over his face, obscuring one eye.

"A legend," he replied, with a shrug. "And nothing more. But you claim to seek out pieces of it?"

"We seek vengeance for the humans slain by the demons we pursue," Miroku cut in smoothly. "Oftentimes those we hunt possess shards. That is all."

Yaburenumaru's eyes slid sideways to Kagome, who had seated herself beside him.

"And these shards. . .do you. . .keep them?" he asked softly.

Inuyasha straightened, putting a hand to Tetsusaiga's hilt.

"You ask too many questions," he growled.

He was distracted when Miroku laid a steady hand on his arm, giving him a look that warned him to be silent.

"Inuyasha, you're being rude," Miroku chided. Then, turning to Yaburenumaru, he added, "I'm sorry. Tell me about this kingdom of yours."

"My father's lands lie beyond the hills to the south," the boy explained, settling into a cross-legged position. "It spans the valley there, including the forests, and the surrounding mountains themselves. My family has ruled there since the first settlement of Japan. Our line has survived storms and earthquakes; defeated invading armies. . .and demons." He did not include Inuyasha in his gaze, and perhaps this was a fortunate thing because the _hanyou_ was baring his fangs.

"Feh," Inuyasha muttered. "So they stamp out a few fledglings and think they're demon slayers."

Yaburenumaru smiled wryly, dipping his head lower so that his bangs fell further over his eyes.

"The Unbreakable Line has slaughtered many Greater Youkai---demons far larger than any 'fledgling.' We fashioned the palace's pillars with their fangs. . .and framed our houses with their ribs."

Shippou's mouth fell open and a hunk of chocolate fell out. His eyes were huge as saucers.

"That is barbaric," Kagome remarked, wrinkling her nose. "You know, not all demons are bad. Like Inuyasha here. . ."

"Oh, yes. Inu. . .yasha. . . You're a dog demon, aren't you?" Yaburenumaru commented, peering over at him. "I have heard of your kind."

"Feh," Inuyasha shot back. "Like I give a shit. Look, kid, you should be a little nicer, because we're not _obligated_ to let you stay with us. You can go find your 'unbreakable kingdom' by yourself."

Yaburenumaru's intent expression softened.

"I apologize," he murmured, bowing. "I shall try to be more polite. The Tatesei are warriors all, but we know the value of honorable behavior. Please do not take it to heart."

"We will be glad to escort you to your home, as it seems to be right on the way," Miroku offered. "This demon we're chasing is very dangerous."

Yaburenumaru straightened, suddenly seeming almost as nervous as he had been when they first met.

"I can manage on my own," he assured them. "I just need to rest a while until these wounds heal."

"Nonsense!" Miroku exclaimed, clasping his arm warmly. "It would be no trouble at all. Where are you going, Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha was stalking off into the trees.

"I'm spending the night out here," he called without turning around. "To watch the perimeters of the camp."

"Inuyasha!" Kagome protested, but he didn't stop.

Shippou turned to Miroku and whispered, "We HAVE perimeters?"

"Let him go," the monk told them casually. "He's just in a bad mood." Miroku's tone belied a warning not to press the matter.

**

* * *

**

Kagome awoke early---when it was still dark out---because she could not stop coughing. Unzipping her sleeping bag, she crawled over to her pack and fished out her water bottle and Houjo's medicine. She downed the latter as quickly as possible. Then she took a few swallows of water and then sat there a moment, waiting for the tickle in her throat to subside.

She cocked her head to one side, listening to the rain and wishing Inuyasha was nearby to demand an explanation for her being up.

A stick cracked nearby with a resounding snap.

Kagome half-turned just fast enough to catch a glimpse of someone moving in her peripheral vision, and then she felt the kiss of steel at her throat. Hands thin and hard as wire encircled her upper arms like a vise. And dimly, in the back corner of her awareness, she sensed that her attacker possessed a jewel shard.

"What---?" she began, but then the knife slashed downward, and the hands vanished. She pitched backward, landing hard on a tree root, and for a moment lay there stunned and unable to move. Then her hand flew to her neck. Only a little blood came away, but it was the absence of the ever-present necklace that caused her fear---the jewel shards were gone.

"Oh no!" she croaked, trying to raise a cry of alarm but failing due to the frog in her throat.

Behind her she heard feet pounding and leaves crunching, and she took off in the direction of the sound. It was Yaburenumaru; she was certain of it. She could just make out his skinny form in the wan light of the approaching sunrise. The running made her cough, and he heard her.

"Go back, Lady," he called softly to her. "This is one hunt you should not pursue."

"No way!" she exclaimed, and with a flying leap tackled him.

He fell to the ground, kicking at her face and shoulders, but nevertheless she maintained her grip around his legs.

"I said get you GONE!" he cried, struggling furiously. "The sun is rising. You haven't much time."

But he was weak from hunger and pain, and his efforts were feeble. She lunged forward and managed to catch him around the middle.

"Give me the shards!" she insisted, reaching for the hand clutching them, which was stretched far over his head to avoid her.

Then, abruptly, his body relaxed and he ceased struggling.

"Very well," he said with a curiously soft and bitter laugh.

She snatched the shards from his relaxed hand and backed away as he sat up. He cut a pathetic figure sitting in the dirt: slight and hollow-faced. Yet from within his fragile body his eyes burned with fierce intensity, as if he held some hidden strength.

"You already _had_ a jewel shard," she said shakily. "How did you hide it from me for all this time?"

Yaburenumaru placed a hand over a cut on his chest.

"I tore it from my own body before approaching you," he said softly. "So that you would not sense it."

"But how did you know I can---?" Kagome began, but he interrupted her.

"You have waited too long," he whispered.

And then, silhouetted in the first rays of the dawn, he began to change.

**

* * *

**

Inuyasha perched in a tree a good twenty feet east of the camp, doing what he did best.

"Fucking brat," he muttered, brooding. "Speaking of that so lightly. . . Oh, yes, I _know_ of his line. . ."

He rested his chin on his knees, scowling.

"Tatesei," he said slowly, his chest burning with anger.

Then he heard Kagome scream.

**

* * *

**

It was easy for him to find her; some of her blood had been spilled. It didn't smell like much, but suddenly he smelled the demon as well, and this sent him running. He arrived at her side, Tetsusaiga ablaze, just in time to see the boy Yaburenumaru become something else entirely.

The boy's form grew and contorted, reshaping itself into something strange and raptor-like. The thing's eyes regarded him with Yaburenumaru's burning gaze. He wasted no time but swung his sword at it. The _kenatsu _cut a sizzling path through the undergrowth, but the demon leaped agilely away. He dodged a vicious swipe from the demon's powerful claws and prepared to swing again.

The demon had apparently had enough, because it took off at lightning speed.

At his side, Kagome sank to her knees. Alarmed, he hastened to her side.

"Kagome, what the HELL. . .? Are you OKAY?" Tetsusaiga forgotten, he crouched at her side, forcing her to tilt her head back so he could look at the wound.

"IDIOT! What is WRONG with you?" she wailed. "Go AFTER it!"

Somewhat deafened by her outburst, he rocked back onto his heels, regarding her less worriedly.

"Well, there's obviously nothing wrong with your air intake," he remarked.

"Just feel a little woozy," she murmured. "Took some medicine. No worries."

"When are you going to be _done_ taking that shit?" he complained. "It makes you all swoony and slow."

"Never mind that," she told him. "Go _after_ it."

Inuyasha shook his head. The demon was very far ahead now, and he didn't like it when Kagome bled---even if it _was_ only a little.

"It tried to take the Shikon shards, didn't it?" he said seriously. "You should give them to me for safety."

Kagome gave him a look that very plainly said, "No."

"I meant _your_ safety," he explained hastily.

"Inuyasha, how dumb do you think I _am_?" she asked slowly.

"What do you think, I'm gonna _eat_ them or something?" he demanded, advancing on her. She was slowly crawling backward to get away from him.

"I'm _not_ picking them out of _your_ butt when you turn demon and we have to _slay_ you for them!" Kagome declared.

"JUST. . .COME. . ._HERE_!" he ordered, but she kept scooting backwards.

After several minutes of this, he finally lost it and took a flying leap at her.

"YAH!!!" he cried fiercely. "Give them up!"

He landed on top of her, and they went down in a tangle of flailing limbs that rolled several meters before coming to a stop.

"Heh." Inuyasha smirked. He had her pinned. "Hand 'em over."

"NEVER!" Kagome cried, staring up at him, wide-eyed.

Then he paused. The rat in his brain finally found the cheese at the end of the maze.

"Hey. . ." He peered down at her curiously. "Why didn't you yell 'sit'?"

Kagome glared up at him. He was straddling her, pinning her to the ground with his weight. Each of his claws encircled one of her wrists, pinning them over her head.

"Because I took the prayer beads OFF you, _baka_!" she exploded. "I THOUGHT I could trust you now."

"You thought that, eh?" he said, grinning. "Well, then I'll be taking the shards."

"INUYASHA!" she cried, frustrated.

"Just until this thing with the demon blows over," he assured her.

"Whatever. Will you just get OFF me?" Her face had gone rather pink.

He stared down at her as if seeing her for the first time, then got off in a hurry, shards in hand. Then he put the necklace over his own head and stood there admiring it for a moment. Kagome got up and lunged for him, but he dodged, jeering at her.

"Why don't you try yelling 'sit'?" he taunted. "If you yell it loud enough maybe it'll hurt my ears."

"So he _finally_ figured it out, did he?" said a dry voice. "After all, Kagome took it off him several days ago."

Miroku and Shippou emerged from the trees, looking bleary-eyed and unkempt. The monk peered curiously at Kagome, who looked even _more_ bleary-eyed and unkempt and had leaves sticking out of her hair.

"Feh," Inuyasha scoffed. "Her mistake. Anyway, I've got what _I_ wanted, so let's head back to camp."

Miroku looked shocked and horrified. Kagome went very red. Shippou just looked clueless.

"What's that?" he wanted to know.

"The SHARDS of course!" Inuyasha exclaimed, pointing to them and looking somewhat flustered.

**

* * *

**

Inuyasha led the way on the walk back to camp, while Miroku, Kagome and Shippou discussed things in low tones, walking five feet behind him.

"We could, of course, just make him give them back to us by force," Miroku pointed out.

"Yeah," Shippou agreed. "I mean he's got to sleep SOMETIME. . ."

Inuyasha heard them, of course, because they were only five feet away. He rounded on the lot of them, several veins popping in his forehead.

"Stop fucking plotting against me!" he hollered at them. "And you won't EVER catch ME asleep!"

"Unless it's with Kagome," Shippou reminded him.

This earned him a Stare of Death from Kagome, and for the rest of the walk she was sulking as much as Inuyasha.

**

* * *

**

The next two days proved to be an arduous trial of everyone's patience---everyone save Inuyasha, who was taking 'obnoxious' to the extreme. Reveling in his 'newfound freedom' he wasted no opportunity to taunt Kagome with his possession of the shards, to pound on Shippou and steal his food, or to insult Miroku.

Yet it was at dinner on the second day that things went horribly awry.

Inuyasha had just finished stuffing his mouth with ramen when something occurred to him.

"Hey!" he exclaimed, spattering noodle bits in every direction. "Kagome, why does Shippou get all the chock-lit? I want some!"

"It's all gone," Kagome told him wearily.

Shippou stuck his tongue out at Inuyasha, which earned him a lump on the head.

"Well, what about that stuff _you're_ drinking?" he asked, once he had tired of pounding on Shippou.

Kagome rolled her eyes.

"It's coffee," she explained. "It's bitter. You wouldn't like it."

Her mother had given her a bag of coffee grounds and a small pot to heat it in. Kagome was glad of it; it gave her back some of the energy the cold was leeching off her.

"It smells good," Inuyasha insisted. "I want it."

In a hurry, Kagome downed the last swallows of the coffee and set her cup down by the fire.

"Nope, sorry; all gone," she told him. Her eyes watered from the heat of the liquid in her throat.

A very cunning look came into his eye.

"Oh, no," he said. "There's more in your bag. I can smell it."

Without further adieu he dived into her backpack.

"INUYASHA! STOP IT!" Kagome cried as he flung the pack's interfering contents over his shoulder.

"AHA!" he announced, producing the bag of grounds at last.

However, the Ziploc opening of the bag seemed to deter him as he couldn't get his claws into the opening. Instead of losing his temper, though, he held it out to Kagome and ordered, "Open this."

"No," she told him flatly.

He eyed her narrowly for a moment, then grabbed Shippou by the tail and held him aloft.

"Open this or the Kitsune gets it," he threatened.

"NOOOO!" Shippou wailed, thrashing around where he dangled in the air.

With a sigh of exasperation, Kagome took the bag and opened it for him. He sniffed it, then poured himself a mouthful of grounds.

"You know you're not supposed to _eat_ it," Kagome told him dryly. "It's supposed to be mixed with water."

"Not (crunch, crunch) bad," he remarked. Then he emptied more of the bag into his mouth. "Makes me (crunch, crunch) feel a little stronger." He swallowed, waited a moment, and then said, "Hey, this stuff makes you stronger, doesn't it? Why haven't you given me some before now?" The twitch under his eye was becoming, if anything, more pronounced.

Kagome watched him nervously.

'_He's feeling the effects of the caffeine ALREADY?_' she thought. '_This is NOT good. ._ .'

"Inuyasha, maybe that isn't such a good idea," Miroku said, apparently thinking the same thing.

"Hell, this stuff is GOOD," Inuyasha exclaimed, grinning around a mouthful of coffee grounds.

"I want some!" Shippou cried, but everyone ignored him.

They watched with great misgiving as Inuyasha poured the rest of the bag's contents into his mouth, swallowed, and licked his chops.

He sat there a moment, apparently focusing on the sensation of the caffeine coursing through his veins, then slapped both hands on his thighs and jumped to his feet.

"Well, I'm done," he announced. "Let's go after the demon!"

Miroku and Shippou eyed him dully, making no move to follow him. Kagome fell into a coughing fit and took a swig of water.

"How can you be so fucking LAZY?!" Inuyasha demanded, placing his fists on his hips and glaring at them. "That demon bastard's going DOWN. Let'sgolet'sgolet'sGO!"

"Inuyasha, _calm down_," Kagome told him sternly. "You won't catch his scent _anyway_. It's nighttime, and somehow I think Yaburenumaru is only a demon during the day. When he tried to take the shards, he warned me to give up because the sun was rising. He knew he was going to change."

Inuyasha regarded her very seriously for a moment. Then he turned and started to go stomping off into the forest.

"DemonBASTARDfuckingtriedtokillKagome (stomp stomp) I'mgonnaWASTEhimNOW!" he shouted. Above them, birds roosting in the trees took flight in a panic.

Miroku took a flying leap over the fire and tackled him before he could disappear from view. Both of them went heavily---Miroku with a grunt and Inuyasha with a string of expletives rattled off at breakneck speed.

"You're. . .not. . .going. . ._anywhere_," Miroku ordered between gritted teeth.

"Inuyasha, _listen_," Kagome pleaded. "He's just a _boy_. I think he's under some kind of curse, like in fairy tales, where he becomes a horrible demon in the daytime. Someone must have cursed him---someone who doesn't want him to inherit the Tatesei throne. And he tried to _warn_ me when he took the shards. He told me to leave him before it was too late."

Inuyasha neither paid her any heed nor ceased his struggling.

"LikeIGIVEafuckabouttheTateseifuckingMURDERERSjustlemmeAThim!"

One of Inuyasha's feet hit Miroku in the gut; the other in the groin. The monk released him and fell back onto his knees, gasping.

Inuyasha scrambled to his feet, looking smug.

"Youcan'tstopMEnoonecan!" he crowed.

Shippou clung to Kagome, looking worried.

"Kagome," he pleaded, "can't you get your prayer beads back around his neck somehow? He's gone BERSERK!"

Inuyasha smirked down at the three of them.

"FehyouwillNEVERgetthatstupidcollaronmeAGAINI'mFREEthebrownstuffhasmademesostrongI'llneversleepsodon'tevenTRYYOUFUCKINGWEAKLINGSmooWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"That's IT!" Miroku declared, flinging aside the prayer beads around his right hand. Apparently he had reached the extent of his patience. "I. . .have had. . .ENOUGH!"

"Miroku, DON'T!" Kagome cried, flinging herself upon him and grappling with him to get him to lower his accursed hand. "There are OTHER ways!"

"YOUWISH!" Inuyasha sneered.

"Let me suck him up! Let me suck him UP!" Miroku growled, trying to shove Kagome off of him.

She leaned down and hissed in his ear, "Just wait. This can't last forever."

Reluctantly, the monk relaxed and replaced the dressings around his hand.

"Inuyasha," Kagome said sweetly, turning to the hyper _hanyou_. "We're _not_ going hunting. _We_ need sleep. And I need you here to protect me."

Inuyasha appeared to be listening to this; he couldn't seem to stand still, but his ears were aimed in her direction.

"I'm awfully cold, and the fire's dying," she told Inuyasha. "Will you get me some more firewood?"

Inuyasha stared at her with a crazed look in his eye, but then he turned abruptly, and without another word went dashing off into the forest.

"Oh, my," Miroku murmured, wiping sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. "I guess he won't listen to _anyone_---not even you."

Kagome sighed wearily, coughing a little.

Yet several minutes later, they all heard a resounding crash, followed soon by another, and another.

"Wh-what IS that?" Shippou asked in a quavering voice.

Kagome and Miroku looked at each other, mystified.

Then, off in the distance, they saw the trees falling, and the light of Tetsusaiga's _kenatsu_ gleaming in the darkness.

The three companions stared, sweat drops forming at their brows.

"Ah. . .he _does_ seem to be doing what you told him to," Miroku commented in a subdued tone.

"Talk about deforestation," Shippou intoned dryly.

_Thwack, thwack._

And Inuyasha wasn't done after the first few trees. He showed no mercy toward the nearby bushes, either.

"Um, shouldn't one of us go stop him?" Kagome asked after a while.

"Why?" Miroku said, pragmatically. "He seems happy."

_Thwack, thwack._

Looking on nervously, Shippou pointed out, "I don't think we CAN stop him. . ."

As they watched he swung wildly about with his sword for the better part of an hour.

"Kagome," Miroku said after a time. "Did you mean what you said about believing Yaburenumaru to be under some kind of curse?"

"That's right," she answered, nodding.

"Then HE'S the demon?" Shippou demanded. "He seemed human to ME. . ."

"He _is_ human," Kagome explained. "But only at night, I think. The curse only works during the day. He needs our help, I think, because someone or something is trying to keep him from his inheritance."

"But he tried to steal the Shikon shards," Shippou argued.

"I think he only wanted the shards to protect himself from whoever his enemies are," Kagome said. "And he's trying to return home so the_ kirin_ will identify him as the rightful heir. So I think we should follow him. Follow him. . .but not _kill_ him."

"Feh! I fucking WILL kill him. . .!"

Inuyasha had returned, with an armload of wood that was nowhere near proportional to what he'd hacked at and hewn down. It was still sizeable enough to tower over his head, however.

"Put that down before it falls on us," Miroku ordered sharply.

Inuyasha tossed it all to one side, where the stack collapsed with a resounding clatter.

"Me and the Tatesei. . .we've got a fucking score to settle," he announced.

"What's wrong with him?" Shippou whispered to Kagome. "He seems to be slowing down."

Indeed, a great deal of sweat had beaded on Inuyasha's forehead, and his eyes had taken on a slightly glazed look.

"Maybe this is your chance," Miroku told Kagome in a low voice. "Now that he's tired."

"I can HEAR you, you idiots!" Inuyasha bellowed. "I'm right HERE! And you'll NEVER get that stupid necklace back on me. NEVER! You cannot match my strength! You are---"

"---getting_ really_ tired of this," Miroku muttered. His left hand kept twitching toward the prayer beads encircled around his right.

"COWER BEFORE ME, PUNY MORTALS!" Inuyasha yelled, gesturing mightily with his claws. "FOR I AM THE GREAT DOG DEMON, STRENGTHENED MANIFOLD BY THE CRUNCHY BROWN STUFF, AND NOONE CAN WITHSTAND MY MIGHT. NEVER AGAIN WILL I LET MYSELF BE---"

What ever he was not going to let himself be, he never got it out, because at that instant he pitched forward onto the ground, one declaratory finger still poised above his head.

Shippou approached Inuyasha first and lifted his head by one of his ears.

"Is he dead?" the Kitsune asked worriedly. "He's got little X's in his eyes."

"No," Kagome explained flatly. "He's just crashed. Caffeine is like that---the brighter you burn on it, the sooner you burn out."

Miroku prodded Inuyasha with the tip of his staff, still not certain that the _hanyou_ wasn't going to wake up and terrorize them again.

"She's right, he's still breathing steadily," the monk confirmed, looking slightly disappointed.

"What about when he wakes up?" Shippou wanted to know. "That stuff might be out of his system, but his behavior is WORSE than it was BEFORE you started taming him, Kagome."

"Well, you can stop worrying about _that_," Kagome said with a grim little smile.

She withdrew the circlet of prayer beads from her pack.

"Lift him, will you?" she told Miroku.

Moments later, Kagome had the Shikon shards around her neck once again, and Inuyasha had his prayer beads back on. They left him lying where he'd fallen----face first in the dirt---and went to bed.

Just before she dropped off to sleep, Kagome wondered once again how Yaburenumaru---a perfect stranger---had known that she could sense the Shikon shards.

**

* * *

**

The slight, frail figure of the boy made its way through the forest shadows, gaze switching nervously from right to left.

In the still of the night, he heard the voice of the other one that hunted him. No, it did not hunt him---it _drove_ him. That voice had set him on this path, and given him the means to regain everything that he had lost.

He was being used, he understood. Yaburenumaru was a king's son, and he knew what it meant to be used. Yet he knew that when he was crowned lord of his kingdom, and all the powers of his forbears descended upon him, he would be repaid manifold for what he was suffering now. He clutched his thin shoulders, wet from rain and chilled to the bone. Water dripped off his lanky hair; beaded upon his eyelashes. His back throbbed horribly from his wounds.

Cutting through the still of the night, the voice spoke to him.

"_Forget your suffering, young one. Soon it will all be over, and you shall have your crown. . .and I my vengeance."_

Yaburenumaru's eyes darted over everything in view, until he saw the dark figure of a man standing not one hundred feet away. How he hated the voice's owner: the giver of pain. . .and the only force that could bring him what he desired.

He limped along at a faster pace, longing for the dawn when he could shed his mortal fragility and run on claws covered in demon flesh.

'_This is what I am reduced to_,' he thought miserably. '_Longing for demonification_.'

He heard no footsteps behind him, but knew the hunter followed. He wished he had the strength to do this on his own.

"I failed to get the girl's shards," he muttered, angry at himself and his weak boy's body. "But the _hanyou_ is too dangerous. Like the others before him. He has to die."

Behind him, in the darkness, he heard soft, silvery laughter.

**END OF CHAPTER 4**


	5. Through the Mountains and Into the Viper...

_Author's Note: This chapter is quite a bit darker than the others. I hope you don't mind if I screw around with the canon for a bit. If you do, sorry. I suggest writing a story about Yamisui being devoured by starving weasels with blunt teeth---that might make you feel better. _OO

**# # # THE BEARERS OF THE SHARDS # # #**

**# # Chapter 5: Through the Mountains and Into the Vipers' Nest # #**

Inuyasha woke in the morning with a raging headache. He pushed himself up onto his hands with a groan, spitting out dirt and swearing under his breath. His recollection of the previous night was vague---he remembered feeling more powerful than he had ever felt before, and then. . .nothing.

His hands flew to his neck, only to find that the cursed prayer beads were back and the shards were gone.

"DAMNIT!" he exclaimed. "DAMNIT DAMNIT DAMNIT DAMNIT---"

"Will you be _silent?_" Miroku hissed. "We're trying to discuss something here."

Inuyasha rose into a crouch and pointed an accusing finger at his three companions, who were sitting around the campfire drinking tea.

"You're plotting against me again, _aren't_ you?" he demanded. "I _knew_ it!"

"Oh, no," Kagome said flatly, eyeing him coolly. "There's no need. You're back under _control_ again."

"Feh," Inuyasha grumbled, moving to join them by the fire.

"He's back on a short leash, where he belongs," Shippou whispered to Kagome.

"I HEARD that!" Inuyasha growled, looking like he wanted to smite the Kitsune but was too afraid of Kagome.

"_If_ you're _quite_ done ranting, then maybe _you_ can explain something to us," Miroku cut in. "When you were possessed by the brown powder, you said something about having a score to settle with the Tatesei. You called them murderers."

"Feh," Inuyasha replied, picking up a nearby rock and crushing it into dust. "I said I had a 'FUCKING' score to settle with the Tatesei."

This earned him a glare from Kagome, so he added hastily, "On account of that brat pissing me off."

"Oh, no, I think it's _more_ than _that_," Miroku said, drumming his fingers impatiently upon his knee. "Come on, you've been keeping something to yourself ever since we crossed that chasm with the warding spell."

Kagome shifted over to kneel beside Inuyasha. The _hanyou_ eyed her suspiciously.

"Inuyasha, we _know_ you haven't been following Yaburenumaru's scent since that night three days ago," she told him. "You haven't been looking for tracks. You haven't sniffed the air once. It's like you know_ exactly_ where he's going."

Inuyasha scowled, folding his arms. "Well, of _course_! He _told_ us where he was going."

"He described his kingdom to us," Miroku pointed out, "not how to get to it."

"What a fucking waste of time," Inuyasha said, getting to his feet. "Let's go. We're burning daylight."

He walked a few paces, but no one made any move to follow him.

Miroku and Kagome cast significant looks at one another.

"Kagome-_sama_," Miroku said.

"Right." Kagome nodded, then turned and shouted, "Sit!"

And Inuyasha, of course, went crashing to the ground. He lay there a moment, splay-legged, then yelled, "HEY, what GIVES?" His voice sounded muffled---his mouth was probably filled with dirt again.

Miroku squatted beside Inuyasha, just out of swiping range, resting his staff across his knees.

"Talk," he ordered.

For a moment Inuyasha just stared at the monk in amazement. Then he pushed himself up with his palms, steely-eyed and scowling.

"What the---?" he exclaimed. "You're going to torture me?"

"'Torture' is such an ugly word," Miroku said mildly. "Let's call it 'forceful persuasion,' as in you _talk_ and Kagome will stop shouting 'sit.'"

"You're enjoying this too much," Shippou remarked, but he didn't seem to be protesting.

"Stop being so stubborn," Kagome told Inuyasha. "I know you don't like that kid but he needs our help. His people must need our help, because someone in the Tatesei kingdom is trying to keep the rightful ruler from the throne. Anything you can tell us is important."

Inuyasha's expression darkened considerably and Kagome backed away, somewhat daunted by the sight. She had not seen that face on him since the day he met Naraku for the first time, and it frightened her more than she cared to admit to herself.

"Never mind," Kagome told him hastily. "Get up and we'll go." In answer to Miroku's questioning look she added, "Forget it. He doesn't _have_ to tell us anything. Let's go."

**

* * *

**

Not long after, they were moving again. The land had begun to slope upward, which made traveling more difficult for Kagome, whose cough had worsened considerably. She had not brought her bike on this trip in the hopes that Inuyasha would carry her because she felt sick. Kagome didn't want to ask him to now---she felt guilty about trying to force his secrets out of him. In her head she had thought of it as a joke when discussing it with Miroku, and maybe even when she made him 'sit' the first time, but something about all of this ran very deep with him. She did not feel like this was something she should meddle with so lightly.

Not unless he chose to let her.

After a time they crested the hill and Kagome stopped short, taking in the view. Inuyasha stopped short as well---right on her heels. His stumbling weight almost pushed her down the other side, but he caught her around the waist.

"Inuyasha!" she cried, teetering for a moment until he tightened his grip to steady her.

"What the hell'd you stop for?" he demanded.

"Well, you shouldn't have been walking so close!" she retorted.

Miroku and Shippou came up the hill behind them. The monk took one glance at them and looked as if he wished he had thought of that one first.

"Hey, Kagome, why'd you stop?" Shippou wanted to know.

Inuyasha let go of her waist and stepped back hurriedly, flustered. Kagome didn't seem to notice---she was busy fishing a map out of her backpack.

"Hey, according to this there should be a lake just over these mountains, in the valley beyond them," she informed them once she'd found it. "We just have to go through them, and then we'll reach the lake Yaburenumaru described."

Inuyasha's expression darkened now at every mention of the boy's name, and it was in utter silence that he led them all down the slope to the river below. In order to cross it they were forced to emerge from the sheltering trees and into the pouring rain. The water was wide, waist deep and ice-cold, and when Shippou stuck a paw in he grimaced and backed away. Kagome----who had been determined to leave Inuyasha alone until his mood improved---suddenly found herself caught up in his arms without warning before he plunged headlong into the river.

"_Kyaa_!" she cried, startled.

"Shut up or I'll drop you," Inuyasha warned.

She obeyed, leaning her head wearily against his chest to avoid looking at the rushing water just inches below her. Fortunately this impaired her view of his face, which underwent a curious metamorphosis from irritation to surprise to embarrassment to something much softer.

Miroku followed close behind, carrying Shippou, who was clinging to his neck so tightly it was likely to leave a mark.

The crossing went quickly and without mishap, save for the fact that they were all drenched to the skin by the time they had reached the trees on the other side. Grateful as she was for the ride, Kagome felt that she had gotten just as wet without setting foot in the river. They started back up the slope on the other side---a much more difficult endeavor because this was a foothill leading into a valley between the mountains. After the first time Kagome tripped on a tree root, Inuyasha insisted upon carrying her on his back, which she accepted without protest. She was very tired, and grateful that he was not angry with her.

The passage between the two mountains was much narrower as they progressed further in, and the trees had an increasingly bent look to them. Miroku said that it was from the wind through the pass, but to Kagome the tree limbs appeared inexplicably tortured and grotesque---twisted by forces other than nature. When she voiced these sentiments the monk seemed concerned.

"Do you sense anything unusual?" he inquired, brushing a hand over the wood of a low-hanging branch.

"There is _kehai_ here," Kagome admitted. "But it's faint. . .like it was broken or something."

"It _was_ broken," Inuyasha said, from somewhere ahead on the trail.

They hurried to join him and see what it was he was looking at.

Across the way, between two twisted trees, there stretched a great web of ropes, two stories tall. Onto various places in the ropes were tied the bones and skulls of Youkai. Inuyasha sniffed at the air.

"The Tatesei brat passed through here during the night, as a human," he said, sounding puzzled. "He wouldn't have needed to _force_ his way through. . ."

Though the holes in the web were large enough for a small, slight boy to pass through, the ropes at levels lower than one story had been slashed asunder.

"A trap?" Kagome murmured, echoing Inuyasha's confusion.

"A warding," Miroku corrected her. "This way is guarded by the spirits of the dead Youkai whose bones hang here."

Kagome approached it, peering curiously at the bones. Some of the skulls were very small, no larger than the size of a human infant's head.

"How horrible," she said softly. "Was this meant to keep humans from entering the valley?"

"It was meant to keep demons out," Inuyasha said unexpectedly, still staring at the web with intense dislike. "The Tatesei sorcerers trapped the souls of dead Youkai in these bones and turned them to their own devices. This warding. . .was meant for demons. I can feel it."

"That makes sense," Miroku said thoughtfully. "'Tatesei' means 'spirit shield.' This warding is a shield of spirits." He paused, looking as if he wanted to ask the _hanyou_ something, but then thought better of it and closed his mouth.

"Come on, let's get out of the rain," Inuyasha ordered. "We can go through---it's broken now and it can't hurt us." His tone was undeniably bitter.

As they passed beneath the web Kagome's gaze was continually drawn to the bones hanging overhead, clacking and twisting forlornly in the breeze. Where the web had not been destroyed the Youkai spirits remained, and their sadness pierced her gut with a thin, keen pain.

"Shouldn't we break the rest of the warding?" she asked plaintively, clutching her arms and shuddering convulsively. "They won't be free unless we do."

Inuyasha glanced back at her, and Kagome saw the spirits' sorrow mirrored in his eyes.

"When we return, maybe," he told her quietly. "But some of the spell still remains---and Naraku is following us."

"WHAT?!" Shippou cried, digging his claws into Miroku's robes. "WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SO BEFORE?"

"Ow!" Miroku yelled, frantically trying to pry the Kitsune off of him. "Have a care! You could draw _blood_ with those things!"

Inuyasha shrugged. The warding was now behind them, and Kagome was not sorry to take her leave of it.

"He's not close enough to attack us," Inuyasha explained. "I only smell him faintly. The bastard's probably waiting until we get the boy's jewel shard to steal ours. But even broken the warding may be strong enough to slow him down. He may sense it and turn back long before he realizes it's torn."

'_If we're lucky_,' Kagome thought darkly.

They pressed on through the pass and found two more webs, each as mangled as the first. By nightfall the rain had let up for a while, and they arrived at a place where the pass dipped downward into the valley on the other side. They made camp near the edge among a cluster of boulders, where Miroku enlisted Shippou's help to build a crude shelter of branches lashed together with vine. The monk was raising the roof to a level where it would rest across two boulders when he noticed that Inuyasha had gone off by himself.

"Kagome," he whispered, nudging her gently with his foot. "He's brooding again. Go to him."

"And just what am _I_ supposed to do?" she asked wearily.

Miroku shrugged and winked at her. "You're a woman. _You_ figure it out."

Kagome rose and headed for the brooding _hanyou_, occasionally casting suspicious glances Miroku's way. Even when he gave good advice he managed to make it sound twisted.

Inuyasha was standing on the edge of the slope, gazing down upon the valley below.

"Hey," Kagome said tentatively, coming to stand beside him. "You should join us---or at least get out of the rain."

When he didn't reply, she followed his gaze beyond the forests below and the vast fields of rice to the walled city that rose at the center. Even by starlight she could see the city's palace, with its pillars gleaming ivory. She could see the temples rising from the low mists, pagodas curved upward like scimitar blades. It was beautiful, and somehow cruel at the same time---a city of warriors and soul-trappers.

"It's hard to believe that people who could build such a beautiful kingdom would enslave the souls of the dead to guard it," Kagome remarked thoughtfully.

Still Inuyasha did not answer, but the set of his jaw was grim. Kagome glanced at him a bit nervously before continuing.

"But it reminds me of something we learned in history," she told him. "The Egyptians built great cities and pyramids---huge triangles reaching to the skies. And they used slaves to do it all. Lots of slaves died from overwork, and some were even sacrificed so that their spirits would guard these places. Soldiers who lived to defend the king were often killed to defend him in death."

A cool wind whistled through the pass, ruffling their hair and clothing.

"The Youkai that once defended this place were betrayed like that," Inuyasha said quietly. "The Tatesei sorcerers are called the '_Council_ of the _Wise_.'" There was bitter sarcasm in the way he emphasized the title. "They are the ones who did it. Those bones. . .those webs. . .were _their_ handiwork."

"Youkai once defended the Tatesei?" Kagome asked, turning to him in surprise. "Why would Youkai care about people who hated them so much?"

Inuyasha took a very deep breath.

"This was the territory claimed by one of the Greater Youkai and his kin. He believed it was the duty of the strong to protect the weak, so he came to the Tatesei when they were just a small village and offered his service. At the time they were under attack by all sorts of men and demons who wanted the valley for themselves. So naturally they agreed. And he protected them for many, many years."

"And then what happened?" Kagome asked. "You said they betrayed the Youkai."

Inuyasha's face darkened, and Kagome couldn't help being a little nervous. But he went on.

"They grew strong," he said bitterly. "They built that great city down there. Their sorcerers grew in power as well. The 'Wise' learned to enslave the souls of the dead to guard their city. They learned all sorts of black magic, too. They did this. . .because despite all he'd done for them the bastards didn't trust him. And they gathered dark forces, waiting for the time when they'd be strong enough to kill him.

"They stopped paying him any sort of tribute. By tribute I mean food---sheep and rice and plums and all that rot. Well, he still insisted on protecting them. But some of his kin began stealing from the humans. And then he did the unthinkable---unthinkable to _both _sides---he took a human princess to be his wife."

Kagome's mouth fell open---she couldn't help it.

'_What he's saying is. ._ .' she thought.

"Your _mother_," Kagome whispered, scarcely able to believe her ears. "And the Greater Youkai and his kin---that was your _father_ and his kin. . ." She broke off, unable to think of anything else to say.

"My mother," Inuyasha said quietly, "was a Tatesei princess. She told me all this. They loved each other. My father wanted humans and demons to live in peace. He could've just taken her as his mate, but he wanted the Tatesei to accept the union, so he insisted on having a wedding in the city." He paused, still watching the city below, then went on with a bitter little laugh. "Heh. He had his way. There _was_ a wedding. But afterward, her own family treated her like an embarrassment. She went to live with my father, and _his_ kin didn't like her either. My father was all she had, really.

"And then. . .she had me."

Here he paused, looking unsure of himself for the first time in the telling of his story. He glanced over at Kagome.

"Go on," she told him softly. She was careful to keep the pity out of her expression because she knew it would repulse him.

"Mm." He turned back to face the valley wind. "She wanted to give birth to me in my father's halls, but the Tatesei began acting strangely once they learned she was pregnant. For some reason they were really frightened when they heard their line would mix the demons'. I guess this was because they had come to hate demons. I can't tell you why---they had no reason to, really. The demons were only stealing livestock from them because they'd broken their promise to pay tribute." His frown was puzzled.

"Who knows why people hate each other," Kagome said gently. "Don't waste your time worrying about the reason."

"Heh," was his only reply before he went on. "The Tatesei sorcerers were plotting against him for nearly two centuries. The fact that my mother was about to give birth seemed to be the last straw. They marched on my father's hall. The battle was terrible. At least, it must've been, because my mother would never speak of it. So I'm not exactly sure what happened. But when it was over, my father was dead, and all of his kin. And the Tatesei stole back their princess and her son.

"I don't know why they didn't kill me. They fucking wouldn't have done it because my mother begged them. She begged them to accept her _marriage_ and they wouldn't." At his sides, his hands had clenched into fists. "The 'Wise' wanted to kill me, I know. Everyone else teased me or ignored me, but the 'Wise' truly hated me. I had a few years with my mother. And then. . .they lost patience. Or something. I don't know what changed then, but it happened overnight. They just came for me, in the middle of the night.

"I don't remember much. My mother gave me some herbs or something to keep me quiet. Things got real hazy. We were running, and the sorcerers were coming after us. We were running through the woods. My mother was getting tired, I knew, but I was only a little runt then, so I couldn't exactly _do_ anything. Then they caught us. . ."

Inuyasha paused, and to Kagome's surprise a shudder passed through him. Yet she dared not lay a hand on him, deep as he was into his memories.

"They caught us," he repeated. "They didn't even want my soul. What a joke. The _hanyou's_ soul isn't worth as much as a demon's _or_ a human's. . ."

He paused again, jaw clenched in anger.

"So they drew a sword and struck a blow. It was meant to pierce my heart. Heh. Even a _hanyou_ won't die if you just wound him. And they wanted to do it and be sure it was _done_. But when they struck, I moved. Even as a pup I was stronger than they'd figured. And the blade only ran through my side.

"My mother was going mad with terror for me. While they were recovering from their surprise, she seized her chance to break free of the one holding her. She took the knife one carried and killed him. In her frenzy to get to me she didn't even see the sword turned her direction.

"I think I was dying," Inuyasha said, in a way so matter-of-fact that Kagome's chest burned with sorrow. "Now that I'm grown, that kind of wound wouldn't do it---but back then I think it might've. And things got real hazy again. I staggered backward quite a ways from them. From the pain, you know. But just as they wrenched the blade free of her and came after me, everything became lost in a flash of white.

"I can't tell you what it was like. Everything just. . .well, went _white_. And then it faded. I was half-unconscious and half-blinded by it, but all I could think of was getting to her. But as the light faded, I saw that I had run to the edge of a deep gap in the ground. It wasn't there _before_ the light, but it sure as hell was there _after_ it. My mother saw me there, from the other side.

"She tried to call my name, but her mouth was full of blood. And they shoved her. She fell into the chasm. I didn't run away. I wanted to go down to find her. There seemed to be some confusion among the Wise. Someone was killing them, one by one, further back from the chasm.

"But the Wise closest to me were determined to get me. (There were a lot of them---maybe thirty. _Thirty_, for a woman and her child. . .) They held up a demon's skull---which they had brought with them, I guess---and called forth its soul. They stepped onto it like it was a cloud, or a boat or something. They tried to cross, to get to me.

"But then a great wind arose. A different sort of light appeared. It was kind of blue, and faint, like the ghost-lights we used to see in the hills. It came from the chasm, where my mother had fallen. And the demon's soul flew upward into the sky. Then it disappeared. And the Wise---because it was gone they fell. Then the blue light was gone.

"I looked across the chasm. There was only one of the Wise standing there. Like all of them he wore a white hood low over his face. You didn't look at the Wise, or they killed you and took your soul. But I looked right at him, hating him. And I knew he was looking at me, though I couldn't really see him.

"'DIE!' I screamed, hating him. In my little boy's brain I didn't have words for the kind of hatred I felt then. I do now, but you don't want to hear it and I don't want to say it. And he just looked at me.

"He said, very clearly, '_Run, half-breed. I am going to kill you_.'

"I hated him, but in my half-blindness I couldn't even find a rock to hurl at him. I had no weapon and no strength. So I reached into my own wound and flung my own blood at him. And it became a weapon. I didn't wait to see if I had killed him. My vision was beginning to darken. So I ran. . ."

Inuyasha's voice trailed off. He frowned down at the sight of the Tatesei city below him, at the curved pagodas and pillars of bone. His was the puzzled expression of someone who has told everything and has nothing left to say, yet remains tormented by the emotions the telling has conjured.

Again, the wind whistled through the pass and into the valley. The rice stalks below flattened and rose like the sea.

"So," Inuyasha said finally, watching it move. "Do you still want to save the boy? And his 'unbreakable line'?"

Kagome smiled gently at him. For all the hollowness in his voice there was no hatred on his face now---only remembered sorrow.

"Inuyasha," she said. "They were murderers. _You_ aren't."

Unexpectedly, he turned and rested a hand upon the crook of her elbow.

"Kagome, I'm not as good as you might think," he told her.

Then his hand fell away, and he turned back toward the camp. His voice floated back to her as he walked.

"Then we'll go tomorrow," he said, "into the vipers' nest."

Before she followed him, Kagome stole one last look at the city. She was sure there must be _some_ good people living---people worth saving. That was why this choice was the right one.

'_Who knows?_' she thought. '_The boy---the poor, accursed boy---might be the king they need to restore their honor.'_

But Kagome also thought of what Inuyasha had said---that the Tatesei had slain his mighty father---and she could not help but fear what lay ahead.

**

* * *

**

**­­­­­­­­­­­­­**In the valley below, in the depths of the forest that framed the fields, Yaburenumaru sank to one knee. His head was bowed with weariness.

"Hours yet until daylight," he panted. "And still no sign of the _kirin_. I fear it has reached the castle already. . ."

From the darkness came the voice, sounding near enough to touch him.

"Forget the _kirin_," it said smoothly. "Once you do what you have come to do, slaying the beast will be unnecessary. A _kirin _can't raise the dead. . ."

Yaburenumaru raised his head. The hunter stood behind him.

"Damn that brother of mine," he said viciously. "That weak little _child_. And they would crown _him_ in my place. The _kirin_ would kneel before _him_. . ."

"Not. . .if the demon reaches him first," came the answer. There was a peculiar stress on the word 'demon.' "That _child_ stole everything from you. Killing him won't be so hard, will it?"

In the darkness, the boy's face contorted with malice.

"No," he whispered.

And then, with his last remaining strength, he pushed himself to his feet and began to stagger toward the city.

**END OF CHAPTER 5**

_Well, I warned you. I hope you're not overly annoyed with me for taking Inuyasha's history into my own hands----but I couldn't resist. If you're wondering exactly WHAT happened at the chasm and exactly HOW young Inuyasha managed to escape certain death and exactly WHO the last of the Wise left standing was, well. . . THAT answer, friends, is for another story, at another time. . . (kukuku)_


	6. The City of Ghosts

_Author's Very Lengthy Note: And now, of course, the plunge into the Tatesei city. _

_Reader: Well, you've SORT of answered the thing with Inuyasha in the last chapter, but we still don't know what the hell is going on with Yaburenumaru. Who the #$ is this brother of his? Is The Voice real or just his evil alter ego? Why the #$ is his name so long and hard to pronounce? What the hell?!_

_Yamisui: All shall be answered below (except the name part---deal with it). I hope the answers aren't TOO obvious---I would hate to write a story where the plot twists are mere cliché. _

_Reader: Can you tone down the angst? I want humor! And sex! SEX, damnit!_

_Yamisui: . . . Um, you're getting the usual combination of humor and sexual tension. _

_Reader: It had BETTER. I have better things to do with my time than reading crappy fanfics._

_Yamisui: OO Apparently NOT, because you've already READ up to chapter 6. . ._

**# # # THE BEARERS OF THE SHARDS # # #**

**# # Chapter 6: The City of Ghosts # #**

In the morning the four travelers descended the slope into the valley. After a long, uneventful traipse through the outlying forest they cut across the rice fields beneath a steady drizzle of rain.

There were no workers around to take alarm at the sight of them---it was the planting season. The tiny green rice shoots had already been inserted into the rich brown mud weeks before. But there were obviously sentries posted at the walls, because they had not even reached the city ramparts when a party of warriors rode out to meet them.

Inuyasha put a hand on Tetsusaiga's hilt, but Miroku laid a hand on his arm.

"Use caution, Inuyasha," the monk advised. "These people hate demons. Let me do the talking."

Inuyasha scowled but stepped back behind Miroku. He had not told the others of his connection to this place. He would not, unless it became absolutely necessary. But he trusted Kagome not to tell, and he felt lighter somehow because she had listened to him.

The warriors rode white horses and wore full armor, and upon their shields was the city's crest. It was a simple spiral---a whorl curving inward on itself---the symbol of a spirit moving.

'_Or a soul caught in a trap_,' Inuyasha thought.

Behind the warriors came a group of men wearing white hoods pulled low over their brows. Their eyes were stern; their mouths were grim beneath the long Tatesei nose. Inuyasha's chest burned at the sight of them. His hand returned to Tetsusaiga, if only to be reassured by the familiar feel of the hilt on his palm.

Demon steel could kill these men.

'_Why, Kagome?_' Inuyasha thought, feeling a little sick at the sight of them. '_Why save them?'_

But he did not draw his father's fang, and the moment passed.

"What reason brings you here?" the warrior at the forefront asked, glaring down his nose at Miroku. "A monk? With a girl and two demons?" His horse snorted and stamped restlessly, as if sharing its master's impatience.

"We have business here," Miroku answered smoothly, stepping closer to the horse's head.

The leader cast the briefest of glances back to where the Wise stood and then said, "We need no exorcisms here. And no business. This is the city of Reiyama, home of the strong and prosperous Tatesei Line. If you choose to pass peacefully my men will escort you from the valley."

At his side hung a _katana_, and across his back there hung a quiver full of arrows. There was no need to ask what he would do if they chose _not_ to pass peacefully.

Miroku bowed respectfully at such an angle as to include the Wise in it. It was obvious to him, even though he hadn't heard Inuyasha's tale, where the _real_ power lay.

"But this _does_ concern your fine city," Miroku told them, almost apologetically. "We have come a long way, hunting a demon we believe is heading directly for Reiyama. It must not have reached you yet, or you would know of it."

One of the leader's men made a small noise of scorn or disbelief. The leader silenced him with a sharp glance. Behind the horsemen, the Wise stood still as statues, listening.

"We hunt our own demons," the leader said haughtily, turning back to face the intruders. "We take care of what little escapes the Warding." He patted the_ katana's_ hilt. "Men _or_ demons," he added, with a significant glance in Inuyasha's direction.

Inuyasha---being, well, _Inuyasha_---promptly forgot Miroku's advice and stepped forward, bristling.

"Look, I don't _care_ what you say you can handle," he declared. "We've come to stop this thing ourselves. It's not what you're thinking. This demon's been traveling south and destroying everything in its path. But at night, it takes the form of a brat who calls himself 'Yaburenumaru.'" Inuyasha paused to sneer at the Wise. "Does _that_ name ring a bell?"

"Respect!" the leader barked, and with a hiss of metal on metal his sword emerged from its sheath. "You tread on thin ground, demon ingrate. Perhaps you don't _know_ the power of the Wise. . ."

"Let them come into the city."

The leader spun his horse around, a look of astonishment transforming his proud, grizzled face.

One of the Wise had spoken.

The leader inclined his head toward the still, cloaked figures, touching a hand to his brow. He seemed to be waiting for an explanation from them. It didn't come. Instead the Wise turned and began to walk back up the slope of the city's ramparts. Their long gray robes hung to the very ground, so that it seemed they glided rather than walked. Inuyasha remembered well how the Wise had always conveyed the image that they were something more than human.

"But they're just puny mortals, under all that," Inuyasha muttered under his breath.

Miroku's staff planted itself on his foot. Hard.

"FUCK!!!" he shouted, dislodging the offending staff and stamping the offended foot.

The Wise didn't react to this outburst, but the leader of the warriors did.

"Tell him to keep his filthy mouth shut," the man ordered Miroku. "Or we'll fit him with a muzzle. The Wise are allowing you in for a reason, so you'd best follow them _now_."

Then the Tatesei warriors wheeled their steeds about and followed the sorcerers. Miroku clamped a hand over Inuyasha's mouth.

"Will you _stop_ picking fights?" the monk hissed in his ear. "This is _not_ helping_OWWWWDAMNIT_!!!!!!"

"Wow Miroku," Shippou commented. "You're as loud as _Inuyasha_."

The monk staggered back a few paces, clutching his left hand and wearing an expression of horror.

"He_ bit _me," Miroku whispered, clearly in a state of shock.

"Feh. You're not _bleeding_," Inuyasha scoffed. "Much."

"Inuyasha, you HAVE to promise to BEHAVE," Shippou ordered, making a great show of speaking patiently. "We didn't come all this way to piss them off and get kicked out."

But Inuyasha was already walking ahead of them, taking large strides to catch up with Kagome, who was determinedly ignoring them and following the warriors up the slope.

**

* * *

**

It took twelve men to open the northern gate---two to lift the heavy log used to bar it and ten to turn the pulley that lifted the heavy wooden door. Once inside, Inuyasha and his three companions found themselves walking in the midst of the Wise. The warriors had left them at once to return to their posts at the walls. Inuyasha almost wished they'd stayed.

Miroku, traveling a few paces behind him, tried several times to ask questions of those Wise nearest him. None of them answered, or even granted him the courtesy of acknowledging him with a glance. They walked swiftly and silently, staring fixedly ahead.

"Fucking zombies," Inuyasha muttered, eyeing them with immense dislike. "They won't talk to anyone but those they think are powerful."

He was walking very close to Kagome, so much so that his shoulder brushed hers every step he took. She did not seem to notice---she was busy taking in the sights of the surrounding city, distracted occasionally by her hacking cough.

However grudgingly, Inuyasha had to admit that Reiyama was a rich and prosperous place. Even the peasants---moving through the streets carrying sacks of rice and cages with chickens inside---wore silk. Their faces were full and unlined, and none of them seemed to be in any particular hurry. The nobles Inuyasha saw, by comparison, were beautiful, smooth-skinned creatures, their robes a riot of color and the hair of men and women alike dripping with jade and pearls. From every sleeve ribbons were draped, to catch the wind and flutter behind them like banners.

The buildings---the houses, the temples, the markets, the palace---these were all as he had remembered them. Stalls selling sweetmeats and pearls from the sea villages and jade mined from the mountains. Here and there, there were theater tents, swathed in red silk as if silk were as common as thatch. And ahead, the palace rose above all others, framed with beams of ebony. Curtains of glass beads. Gardens full of bonsai trees, hung with gold ornaments. Pillars of bone.

The palace had been built over the lake on Kagome's map. Its numerous shaded walkways were supported by painted stone pillars half-submerged in the mirror-smooth water. They walked in the midst of the Wise through these outdoor halls, over bridges fashioned from teak and supported by columns of marble. By this time it was late afternoon; the sun slanting down on the lake and setting it aflame.

"We can't let these people waste any time," Inuyasha muttered, eyeing the city walls on the far side of the water. "I don't know when he'll show up, but if he was AHEAD of US. . ."

"You mean Yaburenumaru?" Kagome said, looking up at him. "Remember, I'll _know_ when he's here. I don't sense him right now. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't come here without the jewel shard---he would want to be at his strongest. So I don't think he's here yet."

"He must be waiting until he's human to try getting in," Inuyasha said softly. "That must be it. They won't let him in looking like he does during the _day_. . ."

The eyes of the nearest sorcerer, a penetrating gray beneath the white cowl, slide sideways to rest upon Kagome. It was the smallest of gestures, but Inuyasha saw it, and his gut clenched with worry. You didn't look at the Wise, or they killed you and took your soul. His mother had told him this once, so that he would not make the mistake of calling dangerous attention to himself. And now the Wise had chosen to turn his gaze upon Kagome.

'_The shards_,' Inuyasha thought worriedly. _'She should NOT have mentioned the SHARDS. . .'_

Yet the gaze of the Wise turned elsewhere just as swiftly as it had fallen upon Kagome, and the gray-robed man did not speak. They had come to the hall of the king.

**

* * *

**

Lord Iryokugou sat upon a cushion of red silk, embroidered with cranes. The tassels of his seat had been gilded. From his white silk robes there hung chains of gray pearls, and across his breast there hung a crimson sash so exquisite that Kagome had only seen the like in museums.

The Wise bowed, and Inuyasha and his friends did likewise. (Miroku had to surreptitiously kick Inuyasha in the back of the heel to get him to follow suit.)

The king nodded in approval as they all knelt before him.

"His Majesty Lord Iryokugou welcomes you to Reiyama," one of the Wise announced. "As does his son and heir, the young Lord Asano."

At the king's side sat a young boy of about ten years, clothed in red robes trimmed with gold. Upon his hands, which were folded in front of him in a thoughtful manner, were many gold rings, and golden chains had been woven into his hair.

'_His HEIR_?' Kagome thought, perplexed. '_But if this is his eldest son, who is Yaburenumaru?'_

"Thank you, gracious Lords," Miroku intoned. "We have journeyed from afar, hunting a dangerous enemy, unto your very gates."

The epitome of polite, the monk paused until Iryokugou ordered, "Speak."

"It passed through our village, killing a family there. The two parents it killed for food, but the child it killed out of malice, mutilating the face beyond recognition. The demon has the odd habit of destroying everything that gets in its way---not just humans, my Lords, anything found in nature as well. It traveled unerringly to the south, and soon we realized it was coming here."

Kagome sneaked a brief glance at the young prince, Asano, but his expression did not change with the relation of this gruesome tale. He was no older than her younger brother, Souta, but his quiet composure made him _seem_ older.

"Yet one night we learned something very strange," Miroku went on. "A boy came into our midst. Cold and starving and wounded, he called himself Yaburenumaru, and claimed that he was the rightful heir to the Tatesei throne."

Something unreadable flickered in the king's eyes, but he only nodded to encourage the monk to continue.

"But at dawn he was transformed into the demon, and he fled from us. We have pursued him into this valley, where we lost his trail. When he becomes human, the demon scent disappears, and my friend In---"

Here Inuyasha interrupted him, "Honnou."

Miroku didn't blink or register surprise in any way.

"My friend Honnou," he amended, "finds it very difficult to locate his human scent."

The king's expression had grown very dark, and the set of his mouth hard and grim.

"Describe this boy to me, that I might know the truth of what you are saying," he ordered.

Kagome answered quickly, "He was thin and wiry, with large black eyes. His clothing was half-gone---torn and filthy---and on his back there were these deep cuts, like he was hit with something over and over. He claimed he was your son and the true heir of Reiyama."

The king frowned. "We did not inflict these wounds on him. But he is who you say he is. That much I can tell." He glanced sharply at the Wise nearest him. "See that the walls are watched, and the warriors made ready to meet the demon should it come." His voice was low and harsh as he issued the last command. "Kill whatever tries to breach our defenses, even if it looks like my eldest son."

The Wise nodded assent and filed out of the room, gray robes swishing softly over the stone floor. Kagome saw, as they went, the last look one cast in Lord Iryokugou's direction. The expression accompanying that gaze was full of loathing and contempt.

'_They hate their own king_,' she thought, wonderingly. '_But why? And why do they serve him if they hate him?'_

Inuyasha saw the eyes of another sorcerer rest briefly upon Kagome, and then the Wise were gone. He fought the sudden urge to finger Tetsusaiga's hilt, promising himself that he would get Kagome out of this city as soon as possible, regardless of what they'd come here to do. The Wise were paying her far too much attention for his comfort.

They didn't seem to recognize _him_---for which he thanked his lucky stars---but then it _had_ been sixty-five years since the Tatesei had last laid eyes on him. And fortune seemed to be with him: in scanning the faces of the Wise he had noticed that they were all young. None of them could be old enough to remember Inuyasha, the Halfling child of their princess.

"My lord," Miroku addressed the king. "There is something else. We have also seen traveling south. . .a _kirin_. That its path coincided with Yaburenumaru's seems too much of a coincidence to dismiss. And he told us that he must reach his kingdom _before_ the _kirin_ did. . ."

Lord Iryokugou narrowed his eyes briefly, nodded, and then turned to a servant standing nearby.

"You there. Woman. Take these travelers to the guest quarters and make them welcome." He smiled benevolently at the four guests kneeling before him, but it was a smile that did not reach his eyes.

**

* * *

**

The quarters to which they were shown were lavish and comfortable. The back doors to the two adjoining rooms opened up onto a walkway suspended over the lake. They were given an evening meal equally as lavish, which all of them save for Inuyasha dug into with aplomb. The _hanyou_ merely pushed his food around his plate, pulling a face sour enough to curdle milk.

"What's eating YOU?" Shippou demanded, jabbing his chopsticks in Inuyasha's direction. "You're not EATING."

Inuyasha sniffed the air long and carefully and then remarked, "Weird. There's no one spying on us."

"I could have told you THAT," Shippou replied, rolling his eyes. "Besides, why WOULDN'T they trust us? We came to WARN them."

With a deep breath, Inuyasha plunged into the story of his connection to the Tatesei, finishing with the strange circumstances of his escape from the Wise. Shippou's mouth fell open. Miroku merely nodded sagely.

"I thought it might be something like that," he said. "You know, you're really bad at hiding things, Inuyasha."

Kagome laid a calming hand on Inuyasha's arm, because he looked like he was about to dive across the table to attack the monk, food and all.

"But they don't recognize you, do they, Inuyasha?" she said reasonably. "After all, it's been so many years. . ."

"I want to leave," Inuyasha told them. Dead silence fell around the table. "I don't trust them. The Wise know you have jewel shards, Kagome. You let it slip when we were walking through the streets. I know them. They don't let things as powerful as the Shikon Jewel slip through their greedy fingers."

"We can't _leave_," Kagome protested. "We _have_ to stay. I saw the way the Wise looked at Lord Iryokugou. They hate him. I think they're angry about this whole situation with the demon and Yaburenumaru. I'm afraid they might turn on their own king!"

Inuyasha folded his arms.

"All the more reason for getting the hell out of here," he insisted stubbornly. "It's _his_ protection we're under, after all. And if something _happens_ to him. . ."

"But _they_ let us into the city," Miroku reminded him. "The Wise don't know about my Wind Tunnel, or the powers of your Tetsusaiga, so they probably think they could've finished us off this afternoon. But _they_ invited us in, not the _king_."

Inuyasha did not seem convinced. "Feh," he said.

"Let's just get some sleep," Kagome urged. "I'm exhausted. I'm sure the _kehai_ of a jewel shard nearby will wake me up if Yaburenumaru shows himself."

She yawned expansively. But Miroku rose to his feet.

"Extinguish the lanterns," he told them. "Let them think we're _all_ asleep. I'll go appropriate a disguise and join the watch at the walls. I will try to learn from the Wise exactly who this Yaburenumaru _is_. And if I think they are lying, I will try to save him."

Inuyasha was on his feet in a flash.

"And why the hell can't _I_ do this?" he demanded. "Since when did you get to do all the skull-bashing?"

Miroku's expression was tolerant.

"If I recall correctly, _you're_ half-demon, and you enjoy 'skull-bashing' _far_ too much," he remarked dryly. "I'm going now, so you'd best settle down and accept it."

To everyone's surprise, the monk then turned to Shippou.

"You can imitate voices as well as shapes, right?" he asked.

Wide-eyed and wordless, the Kitsune nodded.

"Well, you'll have to come with me, then."

"And what the fuck am I supposed to do?" Inuyasha demanded, cheek twitching madly. "Sit here and stare at the walls?"

"_You_ can stay here and protect _Kagome_, since you're so concerned for her safety," Miroku said pointedly.

"Be careful," Kagome told him. "I think the Tatesei may be more dangerous than the demon is."

Miroku raised his right hand.

"Wind Tunnel," he reminded her. "Don't forget to turn out the lights, you two," he added, blowing Kagome a kiss. Then he turned and set off into the night, followed closely by Shippou, who looked none too thrilled to be joining him on this venture.

Left to themselves now, Inuyasha and Kagome turned to stare at one another across the table. Then both of them looked away quickly, flustered.

**

* * *

**

The boy in question stood in an unlit room, looking out into the streets through a silk screen. He watched the activity on the city walls with great misgivings.

"Someone has warned them," he muttered nervously. "It must have been that Inuyasha and his comrades. My father knows I'm coming. He's assembled his warriors; I can _see_ them."

At his side stood the man who had driven him here, and who now turned his icy gaze upon the city.

"Are you losing your nerve, boy?" There was scorn in that voice. "I will have my vengeance with or without your aid. And without _my_ aid you will have _nothing_."

"The Wise will stand with me," Yaburenumaru whispered. "They were the ones who tried to defend me when my father cast me out. He called me unclean, because of what I'd done. He stripped me of my title, and instead he makes an heir of my brother Asano. But I have come back, with you to guide me. No, I am not afraid." He paused, then repeated, "The Wise will stand with me."

A moment passed in silence, and then the boy added, "How fortunate that you are with me, or we would never have reached the city before those fools warned my father."

"You were always meant to be King of the Sorcerers, Lord of the Necromancers," the man at his side told him softly. "You have a heart like theirs---hard and cruel. And that is why I chose you even when you did not desire it at first---chose you to join me on this quest for vengeance. And now, with the coming dawn. . ." The man's voice trailed off as he peered at something beyond the screen.

"With the coming dawn," the boy echoed.

'_With the coming dawn, this boy will become a dagger to slit the city's throat_,' the man thought with a smile. '_How right they were to cast him out. And now he shall bring about their ruin. . .'_

**

* * *

**

The warriors patrolled the walls, watching every movement on the ground below with wary eyes. Below, from the Temple Stair, the Wise watched and waited calmly. The gray-eyed one who had noticed Kagome approached some of his fellows, followed by a blue-robed acolyte whose head was bowed.

"How goes the watch, brothers?" he asked softly. "Have there been any sightings of the boy?"

The Wise nearest him turned to regard him gravely.

"No, unfortunately. We wait for him to send us a sign before we come to his aid. It has been many years since he allowed the demon spirit to possess him---we must be sure that it has not overpowered his own will before we choose to supplant the king."

The gray-eyed sorcerer blinked with ill-concealed surprise, but fortunately his confusion was hidden by the shadow of his cowl. The hood of the blue-clad acolyte shifted as he stepped nearer, raising his head a little.

"He will be a fine king in Iryokugou's stead," the gray-eyed sorcerer replied, "once that brat Asano is dead."

The others nodded slowly.

"Do not speak so openly of these things, even though the hour of our rise to power is at hand," one cautioned him. "The boy has not yet made himself known to us."

"But he _will_?" the gray-eyed one emphasized. "Soon?"

The one who had cautioned him turned his hooded face toward the Northern Gate.

"Yes," he said. "We have taught him our arts. Even in human form he is formidable. The demon in him has allowed him to survive this long. Once he has killed those standing in his way, we will exorcise the demon from him, and he will be forever in our debt." The sorcerer paused. "And forever in our thrall, as well."

The acolyte behind the gray-eyed one prodded his heel gently with the staff he concealed beneath his robes. Shippou started slightly before remembering that Miroku was standing right behind him, listening. The monk had apparently decided that this conversation was over.

With a few polite words of parting, Shippou and Miroku took their leave and headed for the palace, doing their best to imitate the gliding walk of the Wise.

"I must learn _more_," Miroku uttered into the semidarkness. "The Wise don't want to kill Yaburenumaru---they want to _crown_ him. Yet the boy's own father orders him killed. We _must_ have Lord Iryokugou's side of the story." He tilted his head sideways, smiling crookedly at Shippou.

"Do you remember what Asano looked like?"

**

* * *

**

Kagome lay on her side on the soft silken bedding provided by the servants. They had extinguished the lanterns, including the nearest ones on the walkways leading to their quarters. The lanterns in the distance cast only faint glimmers upon the lake, and on Inuyasha's eye, which was open. And twitching, of course.

"Inuyasha," Kagome spoke into the darkness. "You know, Buyo is my cat."

His face disappeared from view, and then remerged from the shadows inches from her own. His expression was an odd mixture of shock, irritation, and utter joy.

"Your. . ._cat_?" he asked hoarsely, leaning over and squinting at her face as if to reassure himself that she wasn't joking. "Your CAT?!!"

"Hey," Kagome said softly. "Your twitch is gone."

Inuyasha grinned, realizing it even as she said it.

"Yeah, it _is_."

Then his face became very serious once more. There seemed to be a growing heat between them here. Kagome could feel it---thick and almost tangible in the near-darkness. And he leaned closer.

"Hey," Inuyasha said, "When you were caressing my head and saying the name that night. . ."

He paused a little uncertainly before continuing.

'_Inuyasha was actually jealous_,' she thought.

"I kinda liked it," he finished. "Would you. . . Do that again?"

Kagome scooted backward a little and sat up, giving him a weird look.

'_And then AGAIN. . ._' she thought.

"Not the part about Buyo!" he amended hastily. "I just liked it when you caressed my head." His gaze was very wide-eyed and solemn. "Especially around the ears."

"Ok_aaaaay_. . ." she agreed, not too sure about all this.

Inuyasha crouched beside the bed and lowered his head expectantly so that his forelocks brushed her knees.

She just stared at him.

"_Well_?" His voice was muffled by masses of white hair.

"Um, why don't you lay your head in my lap," Kagome suggested. Privately, she thought, '_Because right now I feel more like I'm about to pet my neighbor's DOG._'

He stood up, circling the space where he'd been crouching uncertainly for a minute, then gave up and complied.

Kagome trailed her hands gently through his hair, and he was instantly hypnotized by the sensation. But before he surrendered himself completely he ordered, "The monk and the fox _don't_ find out about this."

"Of course not," Kagome assured him. She was surprised to find that she rather enjoyed holding him like this, because for the first time on their long journey he seemed genuinely at peace.

**

* * *

**

Miroku and Shippou strode into the hall of the king---Miroku now dressed as one of the palace guards and Shippou wearing the guise of Asano, the king's heir.

Lord Iryokugou started at the sight of them, rising instantly from his cushion and hurrying to meet them.

"My son," he said urgently, placing both hands on Shippou's shoulders. "You were ordered to stay in the Temple with the Wise. They will protect you there. I will _not_ have that abomination harming you!"

'_So the real Asano is being guarded by the Wise_,' Miroku thought, peering out at the king from beneath his armor. '_And king doesn't know the Wise plan to see him killed!'_

"But Yaburenumaru is my _brother_," Shippou-in-Asano-guise protested. "_Why_ must he die? _Why_ do they say he wants so desperately to kill me?"

The king's face transformed, growing suddenly very old and weary. He let go of Shippou and backed away a few paces.

"I see that I cannot hold this back from you any longer," he said, sighing heavily. "You already knew that from the very _first_ the Wise made Yaburenumaru their creature. I did not want them to train him in their ways.

"But my father---your grandfather---was still alive then, and still lord of this city. And he favored the Wise, and their enslavement of demon souls. He remembered when the great Inu Youkai Clan attacked us, and how powerful we became when we gathered their souls. And he foresaw a day when the Tatesei would march forth from this valley, with great forces of demon souls at our command. But I looked to the future with eyes unclouded by greed, and saw Reiyama become a city of ghosts, where those who controlled the dead held more power than the living.

"Nevertheless, he forced me to give Yaburenumaru over into their training. And they filled the boy's head with grand lies." Iryokugou's face darkened with anger. "I was powerless to stop it. So I tried to convey to your brother the future that I foresaw: the city of ghosts. But he mocked me, saying that he trusted the teachings of the Wise, and not the words of a coward."

'_THAT is the Yaburenumaru that WE met_,' Miroku thought, shifting beneath his heavy armor. '_The proud, arrogant boy who tried to steal our jewel shards. . ._'

"But your brother was rash: he delved too deeply into the scrolls of the Wise," the king continued, pacing with his hands folded behind his back. "This I never told you. He called forth a soul trapped in a demon's rib. It proved too powerful for him to handle, and so it possessed him. Yet it was a salamander demon, drawn only to light, and so at night it became dormant and Yaburenumaru would transform back into his own form.

"Despite his grandiose visions of an army of demon souls, your grandfather was horrified when he learned what had happened. He hated demons---particularly half-demons, for some reason---and under his orders our warriors drove Yaburenumaru away. Yet the party that pursued him never returned. And we could only dare to hope that the boy was dead---for our sake _and_ for his. It's been three years since that time. Your grandfather is dead. And I will finish what he started, and make an end to this."

"He's coming to kill me because he wants the throne," Shippou murmured with convincing plaintiveness. "But why did he wait all those years? Why now?"

The king ceased his pacing and pulled an abrupt about-face to meet his son's---Shippou's---gaze.

"The four travelers spoke of a _kirin_," he said shrewdly. "It comes to crown you, who are now my rightful heir. But Yaburenumaru told them that he wanted to reach Reiyama before the creature did. Perhaps he still believes, in his hubris, that the _kirin_ means to crown _him_. Or perhaps he means to kill you first.

"But get you to the Temple! I have never liked the methods of the Wise, but they are loyal to my Line, and right now they are your best defense. Be wary even while you are among them, but GO!"

And Shippou left the room obediently, followed closely by Miroku the palace guard. Yet they did not return to the Temple. Instead they made haste to rejoin Inuyasha and Kagome once they were out of Iryokugou's sight.

"Somehow I sense that we don't have much _time_," Miroku told Shippou, who remained in his Asano disguise in case they should run into trouble on the way. "We _must_ get Inuyasha's help and get the _real_ Asano away from the Wise. And once he's safe, we must warn the king. . ."

**

* * *

**

"You're leaving me?" Yaburenumaru asked his companion.

The tall man, who had been readying himself to leave, turned to glare at the boy.

"I have kept my promise to you," he said coldly. "See to it that you keep yours."

From the faint light shining through the silk screen, the boy could see the smile that played upon his lips.

"You trust me," Yaburenumaru said quietly. His tone was unreadable, his face hidden in the shadows of the room.

The man's eyes gleamed red in the darkness.

"I don't _need_ to."

Then he disappeared down the deserted halls.

And Yaburenumaru left in the opposite direction, to search for his brother in the Temple.

**END OF CHAPTER 6**


	7. His Brother's Vengeance

_Author's Notes: "Atare" (used as an incantation herein) means "strike"---not to be confused with the video game system with the really crappy graphics. "Seibai," another incantation, means "face your judgment." "Hikari no Kekkai" means "Barrier of Light."_

**# # # THE BEARERS OF THE SHARDS # # #**

**# # Chapter 7: His Brother's Vengeance # #**

As the night progressed, a hush fell over the city---the quiet of anticipation, and perhaps fear as well.

In the guest quarters, Kagome's fingers were moving more and more slowly through Inuyasha's hair. Finally the movement stopped and her hand fell away.

Inuyasha's eyes flew wide open, and so did his mouth. But he glanced up and the protest died on his lips.

'_Eh? Asleep?_' he thought, surprised.

He lay there observing her intently for a moment, mulling this over.

'_Oh, yeah, 'cause she's human,_' he thought, nodding to himself. '_Sometimes I forget_.'

Well, he couldn't stay here all night, he told himself. The monk and the fox could be back at any moment. Something inside him balked at this, but that part was soft and squishy and easy to shut up.

Carefully, he sat up---carefully dislodging Kagome's other hand, which had somehow become entangled in one of his forelocks. Unfortunately, this was the only thing holding her upright, and after teetering precariously for a moment she began to tilt sideways.

"CRAP!" he exclaimed.

Then he remembered that she was asleep and clapped one hand over his mouth to stifle any further noise.

Then he remembered that she was falling and caught her just before her head hit the wall.

He had planned to put her down gently, but instead the soft and squishy part prevailed and he just held her, breathing in her sweet scent.

And in this moment, when one of Inuyasha's arms was around her waist and the other supporting her shoulders, Miroku and Shippou reappeared in the doorway.

"_Ahem_," the monk said, to make himself conspicuous. The sound echoed a bit inside the overlarge helmet that he wore.

"You want us to wait outside 'til you're done?" Shippou offered bluntly.

"Will you guys shut _up_?" Inuyasha hissed. "She's _sleeping_."

"Oh, really?" Miroku asked, sounding interested. He crouched down beside Inuyasha, armor clanking. "Well, we'll just have to wake her gently." He reached out a hand toward her.

Inuyasha didn't even bother waiting to see what the hand was aiming for, but snatched her closer to him and out of its reach.

"_Mine_," he insisted.

Naturally, being pressed against Inuyasha so quickly caused Kagome to awaken---just in time to get a mouthful of his hair.

"Mmf!" she sputtered. "Ppfff!"

Inuyasha looked down at her head as if unaware of what he'd done, then turned very red and sat up straight so she could breathe. Naturally, Miroku had withdrawn the offending hand by this time, and Inuyasha couldn't even _think_ of an explanation to stammer.

Fortunately, Miroku had come to bring them news.

"We have to move out," he told them. "The young prince is in very grave danger."

Quickly he filled them in on what the Wise had said, and what the king had told him.

Kagome's eyes widened.

"So Yaburenumaru was coming here. . .to kill his own brother? How horrible."

"Not so hard to believe," Inuyasha muttered.

"All to become king," Kagome said softly. "He would kill his brother, and let the Wise murder his father. . .all for _that_."

"Feh," Inuyasha muttered, looking away.

"We can't waste any more _time_," Miroku insisted, leaping to his feet. "We have to get the young lord Asano away from the Wise. They said they were waiting for a sign from Yaburenumaru. Just a _sign_. He doesn't _need_ to get inside the walls for them to act."

The others followed suit and made for the door.

Kagome stopped in her tracks when she realized there were only three of them.

"Inuyasha?" she said, turning around in the doorway.

A strong hand clamped itself around her wrist, holding her fast.

His face was hard and intense.

"You're _not_ going anywhere _near_ the Wise," he told her.

"Inuyasha, let _go_ of me," Kagome protested, tugging at her arm. "_Stop_ it! Yaburenumaru and his brother are only _kids_! We can't just let this _happen_---to _either_ of them!"

Inuyasha would not relinquish his hold.

"You think they're 'just KIDS'?" he exploded. "Believe me, Yaburenumaru KNOWS what he's doing. Just like HIS grandfather KNEW what he was doing when he tried to kill HIS grandson. Just like the Tatesei fucking _knew_ what they were doing when they betrayed my _father_. . ."

"Inuyasha, let GO of me," Kagome demanded. "We don't have time for this. . ."

Inuyasha's expression was thunderous; his eyes flashed yellow lightning.

"There ARE no CHILDREN here, Kagome!" he shouted. "Don't you SEE?! The Tatesei Line is a POISON!" He paused, breathing hard, then said in a quieter voice, "They breed only murder."

"I thought you weren't going to let your hatred get in the way," Kagome said softly. "Why stop us now? Why wait this long---until it's almost too late?"

Inuyasha seemed to grow calmer, though he kept a firm hold on her wrist.

"I'm not saying 'don't save them'," he said, without taking his eyes off her. "I'm just saying to let _them_ go."

He was referring to Miroku and Shippou, who stood silently in the doorway, prudently letting Kagome try to smooth things over.

"But not you."

Kagome blinked, surprised.

"Inuyasha, what are you---?" she asked, flustered. Her treacherous face was growing hot.

He pressed his lips together for a moment, then, declared with great emotion, "I'm _not_ going to lose you. Not---" He paused, then finished in more subdued tone, "Haven't I lost enough. . .to them. . .?"

Kagome was temporarily struck speechless. Then she recovered herself, understanding that this was not the time for unexplored feelings.

"Miroku, Shippou. . ." She addressed them without turning around. "Go on ahead of us."

Miroku cast Inuyasha a shrewd, appraising look, then nodded. He and the Kitsune hurried off, footsteps ringing hollowly across the marble walkway. Inuyasha finally released Kagome's arm.

She picked up her bow and quiver, which had been leaning against the wall near the doorway. Then she straightened, looking him squarely in the eye.

"You tried to seal the Bone-Eaters' Well once," Kagome reminded him. "To keep me from crossing over. To protect me."

She slid the quiver strap over her head and left shoulder, then slung the bow across her back.

"But I came back. I think I was _fated_ to come back." Kagome turned partway toward the door. "To be by your side." She smiled at him over her shoulder to take the sting out of her next words. "Inuyasha, you can't protect me from choices that are mine to make."

He just stared at her, saying nothing, though his expression spoke volumes.

"But you can come with me," she offered.

Having said this, Kagome turned from him and stepped outside. She paused on the threshold, taking a deep breath, then began to run.

Inuyasha stood there watching her, listening to the bow clacking against the quiver.

Her black hair, flowing around the arrows as she moved.

He watched her, and for a moment his eyes were sad.

'_Like Kikyou_,' Inuyasha thought. '_If only the strong heart came with a stronger body. Then I wouldn't be so afraid. . .'_

**

* * *

**

Kagome was startled when his hands clamped around her waist. Then he slung her up onto his back.

"C'mon," he said, not looking at her and breaking into a run. "We'll go faster like this."

**

* * *

**

Down the darkened Temple halls Yaburenumaru crept, every nervous breath filling his lungs with the musty smell of old wood.

'_And bone_,' he thought. '_Bone in the pillars_.'

He paused, sniffing the air again.

'_Dawn is coming_,' he thought. '_His blood cries out to me, waiting to be spilled. ._ .'

He rounded a corner, then slid a screen aside to step into the room beyond. Inside it hung many small cages of beaten metal, suspended from the rafters. Inside each of them rested the bones of Youkai. He lifted one down from its hook, then opened the cage and reached inside.

The skull he withdrew was small---no larger than a man's fist. It was the skull of an Inu Youkai child, taken from a battlefield fifty-nine years ago. Stripped of its flesh and its life, while the soul remained, to be commanded by the Wise. This was the signal that he wished to send his allies.

Drawing upon the necromancer's power, upon the teachings of his childhood, Yaburenumaru called forth the tiny, glowing soul. Its light filled the skull, giving the eye sockets an eerie semblance of life. He spoke to it softly, almost lovingly. Then he breathed a word of power, and it flew from its bony prison to deliver his message.

**

* * *

**

"_He's here. The Great Demon's son. He would not have wanted this made known to you. But I order you to do it NOW. Then prepare for battle. He means to destroy us."_ A pause, and then: "_She DOES possess the shards. Take them: my first gift to you as king."_

In a dim, secluded room deep in the heart of the Temple, the Wise stood in silence until the message was finished. Then one of them spoke to the soul and dismissed it.

When its glow had vanished from the room, the Wise turned away. They stepped over the bodies of the warriors the king had sent to guard the prince. The king's men had been killed the instant they set foot in the room.

Now the stern, grim faces of the Wise turned, with terrible slowness, to the boy in their midst, whom they had drugged. He watched them dully, but beneath the thick layers of stupor he was afraid. Now the gray-eyed sorcerer approached Asano, steepling his long, thin fingers and uttering a spell. A strange red light began to pulse between his hands.

To Asano's horror, he realized that it pulsed in time with his heart.

**

* * *

**

Inuyasha and Kagome caught up with Miroku and Shippou easily---the monk's heavy armor was slowing him down.

"Will you take that shit OFF?" Inuyasha shouted at Miroku. "We don't have TIME for disguises any more!"

Miroku glanced over at him, surprised, then obediently stripped off the thick leather trappings. He left a trail of them behind him for a little ways because he didn't stop to do it. On Inuyasha's back, Kagome had become very quiet.

"What is it?" Inuyasha demanded. He always seemed to know when something was puzzling her---or when she was sensing something out of the ordinary. "What do you feel?"

"There's a shard _in the Temple_," she warned. "I'd bet you anything that's Yaburenumaru. He's _in the city_ already!"

"WHAT?!" Inuyasha cried. "How could he have gotten IN? There are guards posted on EVERY fucking WALL. This city's a FORTRESS!"

"Maybe the Wise let him in?" Miroku suggested.

Inuyasha shook his head.

"Someone would've SEEN them. They couldn't have created illusions to hide it, either---their sorcery doesn't work that way. C'mon. Let's get on the roof so she can see better."

In one flying leap Inuyasha was poised on the slanted roof, gripping the tiles with his feet to keep from sliding. From this vantage point they could see the city in all directions. Kagome's gaze was drawn to the Temple pagodas, rising in tiers above the other buildings.

"There _is_ a shard in there," she said, frowning. "But that. . .that's not the _only_ one I sense."

"WHAT?!" Shippou cried. "You mean NARAKU'S here?!"

"Feh," Inuyasha cut him off, slicing one hand through the air in negation. "Naraku and the brat aren't the _only_ ones with shards, fox. And I don't smell Naraku. And I can smell him from m_iles_ away."

"It's only one other shard that I sense," Kagome told them. "I think I see it. . ._there_." Abruptly she turned and pointed downward. "It's moving. _Fast_." She paused, eyes widening. "Even in _demon_ form Yaburenumaru didn't move that _fast_. . ."

"Heh, so the brat's brought a friend, eh?" Inuyasha grinned fiercely, cracking his knuckles.

"It's moving toward the palace!" Miroku cried suddenly. "It's after the _king_! Yaburenumaru wants them both dead, so he's given someone else a shard to go do it. . ."

"Let's go, Kagome," Inuyasha told her.

She tightened her grip on his shoulders, and with another great leap he had crossed the street and landed on the next roof. It was slanted, and he slipped a little, but dug his claws into the tile and righted himself. Then they were off again, traversing the rooftops toward the palace.

Miroku and Shippou didn't waste any time but leaped down to the streets and took off toward the Temple.

**

* * *

**

In the dark Temple room, the boy prince fought for breath as the gray-eyed sorcerer drew his soul from his body.

**

* * *

**

"They're below," Miroku whispered to Shippou. They had climbed onto the Temple roof and traversed it until the monk was certain of the location.

Now he planted his staff on the tile.

"We're going _THROUGH THE ROOF_?" Shippou asked worriedly.

"We can't go through the front door, can we?" Miroku pointed out. "Many guards, and lots of our Wise friends to greet us there."

"But---but it's a _TEMPLE_," Shippou argued. "We can't just bash in the ROOF."

Miroku smiled mirthlessly at the Kitsune.

"Whatever they call this place, it isn't holy," he said. "And it can't stand against the power of true faith."

He drew in a deep breath, and then his face hardened with concentration. The rings on his staff began to move, clinking faintly. Then a great circle of light spread forth from the staff's tip in every direction. Shippou shielded his eyes. There was a sudden, great rushing of wind, and then silence. Slowly, the Kitsune moved his arms away from his face.

Then the tile beneath their feet gave way and everything went crashing straight downward.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Shippou yelled.

Miroku landed on the floor in a crouched position amidst the massive shower of debris. He remained calm and collected, and rose quickly to his feet. He was forced to haul Shippou to _his_ feet, however---the Kitsune still seemed convinced that he was going to die.

Around them, the gray, silent figures of the Wise could be seen shifting backward out of the way. One of them still held the boy Asano; the hands of another glowed red with sorcery.

"Let him go," Miroku said coolly. "You will not touch him."

"_Finish_ it," one of the Wise urged their fellows. "_We_ will deal with this. . .this violation of our sacred place."

The Wise began to close in around the would-be rescuers, eyes glowing now with an eerie white light.

"Come forth," each man whispered, and something very strange happened.

From the very Temple walls there poured forth the green light of demon souls. The lights swirled around the men who had summoned them. A chilling, hair-raising wind filled the room.

"_Atare,"_ the first of the Wise whispered. The others echoed the word. Their voices, though lowered to a near-whisper, reverberated in the small room.

"Use the Wind Tunnel!" Shippou cried, transforming into something larger and trying to bowl several of the sorcerers over. "They're going to kill us!" His maneuver didn't work. As soon as his flesh touched one of the souls, he recoiled in horror. "Cold," he cried, shuddering. "Don't let them TOUCH you, Miroku!"

"I can't use it _here_!" Miroku reminded him. "I might take in the _boy_! And the souls are innocent. They should be _freed_, not flung into the _void_. . ."

"_Atare_," the sorcerers repeated, gesturing toward the two intruders. Yet the demon souls seemed to be hesitating. Perhaps they sensed the power radiating from the monk. Or perhaps they understood that he wished for their freedom.

Miroku's expression hardened. He planted his staff on the ground before him.

"I SAID, you WILL NOT TOUCH THE BOY," he warned them, in a clear, strong voice. "Unholy creatures. _SEIBAI_!!!"

At the last incantation, the air between Miroku and those Wise nearest Asano seemed to pulse. Then the red light between the gray-eyed sorcerer's fingers shattered like glass.

In a sudden burst of phantom flame, the man's own spell expanded to engulf him in one great bright flash. Then it seemed to sink into his very flesh. He fell to the floor and lay there prone, like a dead man. His fellows backed away, unnerved. The boy's soul, which had been half-drawn out of him, flew back into his open mouth, and he pitched backward with the force of it.

In three swift bounds Shippou had reached him.

"Get him out of here," Miroku ordered. "Go find Inuyasha. I'll hold them off."

The Kitsune transformed into something resembling a large crane with very bulbous eyes. He lowered his neck to Asano, who despite his state of shock grabbed on and managed to sling a leg over Shippou's back.

"_ATARE_!" the sorcerers shouted, and it seemed that this third repetition of the spell exerted too much force for the demon souls to resist. They shot toward Miroku like a volley of green arrows.

The monk lowered his head, then called in a clarion voice, "_HIKARI no KEKKAI_!"

The demon onslaught broke like water upon the invisible barrier formed by the spell. For a moment the room was obscured by a brilliant flash of green.

"GO NOW!" Miroku cried.

In that moment of borrowed time Shippou-the-crane managed to carry the half-conscious Asano up through the hole in the roof and away into the night.

Then the barrier that shielded Miroku collapsed inward, and the monk fell to his knees.

And then the demon souls fell upon him in a great dark tide of green.

**

* * *

**

Inuyasha and Kagome flew from rooftop to rooftop at breakneck speed, the wind rushing past their faces.

"I _knew_ it would be something like this," Inuyasha muttered. "There _had_ to be two of them. _That's_ why the demon's footprints fucking smelled like _three_ different scents and not just two. There was a human scent, a reptilian demon scent. . .and something else. It was faint, that something. I smelled it once, when we stopped in that forest, and never again afterward."

He lapsed into thoughtful silence for a minute, then corrected himself.

"No, wait. That's not right. The very first night, when I brought you back through the Well, you sensed a shard nearby. Then I smelled something odd. . .almost _familiar_, really. And I smelled it _again_ in the footprint later. . ."

"And Yaburenumaru's accomplice had a shard of its own," Kagome reminded him. "That was what I sensed. We should have guessed it, from the very beginning!"

Inuyasha's expression darkened.

'_That scent. . ._' he thought. '_So familiar. . . And getting stronger as we get closer to the palace. . .'_

"Hold on," he told Kagome. Then he leaped two stories down to the courtyard before the king's chamber.

And landed in the koi pond.

"SHIT!" he swore as lily pads scattered in all directions and fish fled his feet in terror. "So much for a sneak attack."

'_Well, NOW there's no chance of that_,' Kagome thought, rolling her eyes. _'Swearing at the top of his lungs. . .'_

He set her down and they splashed their way out of the pond.

"Yuck, my _socks_," Kagome complained, wrinkling her nose.

Inuyasha, who had leaped clear of the pond in one bound, had stopped suddenly, going very rigid. He was staring straight through the doorway to the king's chamber.

"Inuyasha?" Kagome called softly. "Do you see it?"

Inuyasha's hand clenched around Tetsusaiga's hilt. His jaw tightened.

"Oh, I can fucking _see_ it, all right," he answered in a low voice.

She moved closer to him, trying to see, but he flung out an arm to stop her.

"Stay here," he ordered in a harsh voice. "I'm going in. You find a good vantage point. Then shoot him with your arrows. But _don't_ follow me closely."

Kagome nodded solemnly, then moved away from the door. And Inuyasha drew nearer to it, one hand on his sword-hilt.

**

* * *

**

The king lay where he had been flung. He could not have moved if he wished to; his bones had been shattered by the blow, and then splintered by the impact. His silken robes were matted with his own blood.

His tormentor crossed the room, slowly, with a predator's grace.

The king tried to speak, but his breath was leaving him. The tall man, cloaked in white, reached down and lifted him by the hair. The pain was terrible, sending fire shooting through his scalp, but it was no worse than the pain from his injuries. He was dying, he knew.

"Why?" he finally managed.

The clawed hand tightened its grip and Sesshoumaru bent nearer, eyes narrowed to slits in anger.

"Why?" the white demon echoed his question in mockery. "_Why_? Do you not know?"

Lord Iryokugou searched his already-fading memory. The Inu Youkai Clan. War. Death. Enslavement.

"Vengeance," the king murmured. "They said. . .none of your clan. . .lived. I have only heard. . .stories. . .AH!"

He gave out a weak cry of pain as the demon's claws dug into the flesh of his scalp and lifted him higher still.

Then Sesshoumaru dropped him, and he fell to the floor with a dull thud. For a moment stars of pain clouded his vision, and through it he heard the demon speaking.

"You _forgot_?" The voice was low, laced with hatred. "You _use_ the souls of my _kin_ to protect this accursed land, and you _forget?_ Tell me, is it _easier_ to forget? Easier, yes, to ignore that your empire was built not on the strength of men but the blood of _demons_?"

"I---banished---Yaburenumaru---for this," the king whispered. "Didn't want---that sorcery---to endure. . ."

The stars cleared, and he saw Sesshoumaru smiling.

"Ah, yes. Your disinherited son. He's here. I have brought him. I found him, and drove him here. And now he will destroy the last of your Line. The Tatesei Line is about to break. And then. . .I will batter this city to the ground."

Behind him, there came the swift sound of a sword clearing its sheath.

"You cannot oppose me in this, Inuyasha," Sesshoumaru said, without turning around. "If there is any demon blood in you at all---you will not try to interfere. These people deserve to die."

Inuyasha halted, sword poised.

He did not move to strike his brother. But he did not move to sheath Tetsusaiga, either.

To Iryokugou, Sesshoumaru said dispassionately, "Die."

And he ran his claws through the man's heart.

Then he withdrew them, shaking the blood from them.

"Now," he said, face cold and hard as marble. "Let there be an end to this."

**END OF CHAPTER 7**


	8. The Demon's Wrath

_Author's Note: Chapter 8 is going to be the darkest yet. I give this chapter the individual rating of R, because it gets rather violent in places---just to warn those of you who are sensitive to that sort of thing. Also, "Jii-san" is a term of address for "grandfather."_

**# # # THE BEARERS OF THE SHARDS # # #**

**# # Chapter 8: The Demon's Wrath # #**

**Flashback: Fifty-five Years In the Past**

_A thin, shivering boy stumbled through the forest, clutching his shoulder. Beneath his shirt he was wounded; burnt, by the villagers from whom he had stolen his most recent meal. That had been four days ago---a roast chicken and a sack of rice. The rice he had been forced to eat hard and uncooked, because he had no bowl and no time to stop. _

_After downing the meal hurriedly he had rushed off to find somewhere safe to sleep---somewhere where the vengeful villagers would not find him. He thought he had run far enough, until he was roused from deep slumber by rough hands. They had burnt into his shoulder the brand of a thief, not realizing that as a hanyou he would not have lasting scars. Yet the lesson they taught him remained burned into his brain: do not trust humans. _

_The humans of Reiyama had killed his family, and hunted HIM now. So he kept running. And that meant he could not settle into any village, so he was forced to steal what he couldn't catch on his own. And stealing meant that no one trusted him. _

_Now he came upon yet another village. He had not been trying to find one; this one seemed to have found him. He knew he must stop to sleep or he would soon drop with exhaustion. Yet he had not wanted to stop so near to a human settlement, because he feared the Tatesei Wise would find him there more easily. _

"_Run, half-breed. I am going to kill you"_

_He had only been five years of age when he heard their final warning. Now he was fifteen, and he had not forgotten. There were times when he had tried to settle into a particular village---especially when he was younger---and had fallen into the lull of a false sense of security. But then, after perhaps a few months at most, he would begin to sense a powerful presence approaching and take to the road once again._

_Yet now he slumped to the ground, exhausted beyond even his half-demon strength. He was too weakened from hunger to do more than drag himself beneath the concealment of the bushes. _

_When he awoke two days later, he was no longer in the forest but in someone's house, on a bed. The house's owner---a kindly old man---fed him chicken broth to strengthen him, and spoke to him soothingly when he cried out from feverish nightmares. _

"_They're coming, they're COMING," he would cry. "Don't touch me! They'll take you!"_

_But the old man only said, "Hush, no one is here. You have nothing to fear."_

_Months passed; months during which he resided in the village. And, as always, with the passage of time he came to believe the old man's words of comfort. . ._

_. . .Until the day he returned from hunting in the woods to find a new enemy standing in the doorway of the old man's house._

_He froze, the blood from the two rabbits he had caught still drying on his hands. He had not sensed this man as he had sensed the Wise---the near presence of the Wise made his flesh crawl, while this man exuded the impression of a very different kind of power._

_His enemy also froze at the sight of him, and they stood there regarding each other for a moment. _

_The boy's first thought was that his enemy possessed an unearthly beauty. The stranger's skin and hair were pale and luminous---as if he had never seen the sun, though he stood in bright daylight now and did not so much as squint. _

'_A prince,' the boy thought, because only royalty had such pale complexions. He hadn't seen a man dressed so finely since his youngest days in the Tatesei city. The stranger wore mostly white, and the boy would easily have mistaken him for a marble statue were it not for the bright intelligence in his eyes. _

_Yellow eyes, hard and cold as jewels._

_The stranger's regard was hostile, yet there was also a kind of dazed wonderment in it, as if he were seeing a ghost._

"_Why are you hunting me?" the boy demanded. His muscles tensed for flight---he had lived this long because his Youkai instinct to survive was very strong. "YOU'RE not one of the Wise. . ."_

_The stranger seemed to recover himself, and stepped forward calmly._

"_I have come for you," he said, "Inuyasha."_

_A cool wind arose, blowing back his long hair. Though he wore a warrior's armor, he wore his hair loose and unbound. Beneath the white mane, his ears curved upward, tapering to points. It was then that the boy realized his enemy wasn't human._

"_You're a demon," the boy murmured, frowning. "Why the hell am I being hunted by both Tatesei AND Youkai?" _

"_The Tatesei have abandoned their search," the demon told him dispassionately. "Too many years have passed, and you have roamed too far. But I---I have found you now."_

_The boy sniffed the air, and his eyes narrowed._

"_I smell blood," he said, attempting to peer beyond his enemy to the house. "What have you done?"_

_The white demon took another step toward him but did not cease his blockage of the doorway. _

"_The human?" he asked carelessly. "Dying or dead. It doesn't matter."_

_The boy dropped the rabbits he was carrying, a sudden gleam of fury in his eye. They fell into the dirt, forgotten._

"_I don't care what you want from me," he said, cracking his knuckles. "You shouldn't have come."_

_The white demon seemed interested. He advanced another step, and the boy held his ground._

"_You're not going to run?" the demon asked. "Face me, then, whelp. Show me that his blood truly flows through your veins."_

_Inuyasha's hands clenched into fists. _

"_WHOSE blood?" he demanded. "What the hell are you talking about?"_

_The demon took another step toward him. His hand brushed the hilt of the sword that hung at his hip, but then passed over it as if he had thought better of it. _

"_Our father's," he answered quietly. _

_Inuyasha's eyes widened, and for a moment his fists uncurled._

"_You're saying---you're my---" He paused, unable to finish the sentence, then asked with characteristic frankness, "Then what's with your ears?"_

_The man frowned as Inuyasha jabbed a claw in the direction of his ears. It was a fair question; the white demon did not seem the least bit dog-like. _

"_I am full demon," the white demon answered with evident distaste for his brother's manners. "It is only the demon parent that we share. But enough." He waved the question aside and began a slow, steady advance toward Inuyasha. He raised one hand, and a sickly greenish glow formed around the claws of that hand. "Come. I want to see just how human you are."_

_Inuyasha eyed the hand warily, unsure of what to do. On one hand, he figured this man was telling the truth. He noticed the resemblance between them now, and didn't see why the white demon would have reason to lie. On the other, his brother---half-brother---seemed like a real bastard. He didn't think the glowing green claws meant anything good, either._

_So he planted his feet and declared, "Stay the hell away from me, you albino bastard!" _

_The white demon did not seem to hear---or perhaps he simply didn't care. With sudden, inhuman speed he launched himself at his younger brother, swiping downward with the glowing claws. _

_Inuyasha possessed a demon's quickness, but nonetheless he barely dodged the attack. The air beside him sizzled, smelling acrid and burnt. _

"_What the HELL?" he cried, confused. "You're trying to KILL me!"_

_The white demon merely narrowed his eyes, then moved in for another attack. Inuyasha responded with a swipe of his own claws, which managed to shred the end of his enemy's sleeve. _

_His demon brother paused to assess what had just happened; a little blood dripped from his wrist from where Inuyasha had scratched him. Then he looked up at Inuyasha, and for the briefest of moments his eyes flashed red. He smiled---a slow, faint smile that for some reason made the hairs stand up on the back of Inuyasha's neck. Then, abruptly, he flew at the young hanyou so swiftly that he became a blur. Inuyasha found himself falling steadily backward beneath a lightning-quick assault of deadly slashes. The air shimmered with the heat of the white demon's power. _

_Inuyasha sensed that this battle was going to claim his life; that the white demon---half-brother or not---intended for him to die here. And for some reason, he wasn't afraid---only increasingly angry. He was angry that he was hated by so many through no fault of his own. He was angry that he had found peace here, but the white demon had come to destroy it. _

"_WHY?!" he cried. In a fury, he attempted to grapple with his assailant. His haphazard blows were strong, but did not strike their targets with any sort of frequency. _

_From somewhere behind the rain of blows, his brother's voice asked calmly: "You ask 'why'? Are you going to plead for your life?" _

"_WHY DID YOU KILL THE OLD MAN?" Inuyasha cried, and one of his blows struck his attacker's breastplate. It did not shatter, but a long, thin crack appeared in one corner. _

_The white demon seized the opportunity. Before Inuyasha could pull back his punch, he ran his claws through the hanyou's shoulder. Holding fast to the torn flesh, he pulled the boy toward him._

"_Why do you care about the old fool?" his brother hissed between clenched teeth. His beautiful face appeared fierce and inhuman. "FIGHT me, Inuyasha. Or bow to me, now that you know my power. But do not speak to ME of human FILTH!"_

"_YOU KILLED HIM!" Inuyasha yelled, wrenching free of his brother's grasp with strength born of anger. "YOU KILLED HIM! You deserve to DIE!"_

_Inuyasha dug the claws of his right hand into his brother's arm. He tried to bring his knee up between his enemy's legs for a crude but crippling blow. However, the white demon appeared to know that one and dodged it, so that Inuyasha's knee only struck his brother's left thigh. Showing no indication of pain, Inuyasha's brother sank his claws into both of Inuyasha's shoulders, lifted him, and hurled him into the house with such violence that the walls shattered._

_Beneath a rain of heavy debris, Inuyasha managed to crawl over to where the old man lay. Weak and hurting as he was, he managed to shove away the heavy wooden beams that pinned the man to the floor. _

"_Jii-san?" he whispered, his voice husky because the wind had been knocked out of him._

_The old man did not answer, but let out a pathetic cry of pain as Inuyasha's probing hand made contact. Tears washed the dust from his eyes, and he saw what had befallen the man who had shown him shelter and kindness for all this time._

_The white demon had disemboweled him. _

_The floor beneath the broken wood was slick with blood---so much blood that the wooden floor had not completely absorbed it. _

_From somewhere behind where he lay there came the sound of footsteps moving calmly over the ruins of the house. Then they ceased, and the cold voice of the white demon commanded, "Leave him."_

_Inuyasha ignored his brother's admonition. Weeping, he tried to push the old man's intestines back into the gaping wound, but they were torn and dragged splintered debris with them, and the old man screamed in agony. _

"_Jii-san," Inuyasha whispered brokenly._

"_Get up," his brother's voice ordered from behind him. "Leave him."_

_In desperation, Inuyasha clasped the old man's head between his hands. A harsh sob escaped him._

_Then his brother's foot connected with his mid-section, and he rolled a few feet, doubling up and gasping. Over the harsh sound of his own breathing, Inuyasha heard the white demon moving to stand over him. _

"_Forget him," he told the boy coldly. "He betrayed you to me. When I threatened him, he told me where you were, and that you would return to the house. THAT is human love, Inuyasha. To these puling mortals, honor is a but a thing of stories. As with the old man, they would cast all honor aside even if it means living for just one moment more. . ."_

_Through the stars that swam before his vision, Inuyasha looked up to see his brother glaring down at him. Then, unexpectedly, the white demon's face was filled with a great and terrible bitterness, and sorrow too dark and deep for words._

"_Tell me you hate the Tatesei," he demanded suddenly. "Regardless of what BLOOD flows in your veins, tell me that you HATE them. They killed your mother---their own PRINCESS---because she bore a demon's son. They deserve to DIE."_

_Groaning, Inuyasha rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself up onto his knees. His brother stepped back, waiting for his answer. Yet instead of replying, he crawled slowly and determinedly back to where the old man lay. _

"_Tell me that you thirst for the blood of those who betrayed our kin, and I will let you live," his brother told him, watching his progress through narrowed eyes. "Tell me that you are our father's son and I will spare you."_

_Once again Inuyasha took the old man's face between his hands. Gritting his teeth in anguish, he tightened his grip, and then snapped his hands abruptly to the side. The old man breathed a faint sigh and went limp, his agony over at last._

_Inuyasha released the lifeless body and raised his head. Blinded by sorrow and pain, his eyes were sightless as the dead man's. _

"_He. . .was not. . .Tatesei," he told his brother slowly. _

"_Fool," his brother said icily. "ALL humans are Tatesei. They would use our power and strength to serve their own ends, all the while hating us for what they do not possess." He paused, and when his younger brother did not answer he said, "Say the words, Inuyasha. Show me that your demon blood is stronger than THEIRS. And I shall spare you for the sake of vengeance."_

_Slowly, Inuyasha turned to face his brother._

"_Go to hell," he whispered._

_Once again the white demon's face filled with bitterness, and his eyes flashed red._

"_So be it," he declared, in a voice sharp as steel. "Then Lord Sesshoumaru abides alone."_

_Inuyasha watched the coming blow dully, too dazed and weakened to do much else. Then his brother's final blow connected with his head, and all the world went red, then black._

_When he awoke five days later, he lay in the forest, covered in dried blood and still half-dead. He crawled slowly and painstakingly back to the village, only to be driven away at sword-point. Though his brother had left him for dead, it seemed the villagers did not want him living among them in case the white demon returned._

_So he returned to the life of running and stealing, very much embittered and caring very little for either humans OR demons._

**

* * *

**

**The Present, In the Palace of Reiyama, the Tatesei City**

On a marble floor now slick with blood, the Tatesei king breathed his last.

Slowly, Sesshoumaru straightened and turned to face his brother. They stood silently for a moment, regarding each other---Inuyasha with great dislike and Sesshoumaru with contempt. Then the white demon tilted his head to one side and spoke.

"You won't strike me," he said softly.

Inuyasha said nothing. Nor did he move; he seemed rooted to the spot.

"You won't strike, because you hate them, too," Sesshoumaru murmured. "Don't bother trying to hide it; I can see it in your face."

Inuyasha's face was indeed a map of warring emotions. He hated his brother---had always hated him---and yet he knew Sesshoumaru was right. In this Sesshoumaru had always been right.

Inuyasha _hated_ the Tatesei. He wanted them to _pay_, for the years of loneliness he had been forced to endure; for part of him that would never be whole. . . His brother's words of all those years ago returned to him: "_They deserve to DIE_."

Sesshoumaru frowned at Inuyasha, at the sword still held poised between them.

"But you don't have the strength to do it," he said, lip curling with disdain. "And so you leave it to me. What a child you are, Inuyasha. You would let others stain their hands with blood because the human in you lacks the courage."

It seemed that Sesshoumaru hoped for some kind of response, but Inuyasha did not move. The elder brother glared at the younger. For a moment, an open, naked bitterness passed over his face like a shadow. Then it vanished, and the white demon's expression became as cold and calm as ever.

"So. I do this alone," Sesshoumaru said softly. "As always. Let the demon do what the half-demon cannot."

Then he swept past. His long hair brushed past Inuyasha's face, and then he was gone---through the door and out into the city. And still Inuyasha did not move.

**

* * *

**

Kagome climbed half-way up the building to the nearest window, where she could get the clearest view of the room's occupants. When she pushed aside the silk screen hangings and saw, she could barely suppress a gasp of surprise.

'_Sesshoumaru. ._ .' she thought in horror. '_Here!_' She shifted into a better position, frowning. '_And bearing a shard of the sacred jewel. But WHY? Why would he join forces with a prince of the people who murdered his family?'_

She saw him strike the killing blow and saw Lord Iryokugou fall. Then she saw him speak with Inuyasha, who stood with Tetsusaiga upraised between them. And then, to her utter shock and horror, Sesshoumaru passed Inuyasha and left the room, and Inuyasha did nothing!

"Strike _now_, Inuyasha," she whispered. "While his back's turned. . ."

But Inuyasha did not move.

For a moment she sat there, wallowing in indecision. Then she recalled the brutal swiftness with which Sesshoumaru had delivered death to the Tatesei king.

Then she recalled that Sesshoumaru must remember all too well the Tatesei betrayal and murder of his kin sixty-five years ago.

And then she realized that Inuyasha's brother had allied himself with Yaburenumaru for a reason. He had used the boy to cross the web-like barriers in the mountains. The greedy prince, believing himself to be assured the loyalty of a great demon ally, had deliberately destroyed the wardings so that Sesshoumaru might pass.

"Oh. . ." she breathed, in dawning horror.

The prince had not realized how he was being used. He had allowed a serpent into the nest. And it was not a _coup d'etat_ that Sesshoumaru wanted, but a chance to penetrate the spiritual defenses of the Wise, to destroy the city. . .

Hurriedly she climbed up onto the first section of the roof and scrambled to the front, where she hastily drew an arrow from her quiver and made ready her bow. Below, she could see Sesshoumaru emerging from the palace corridor and into the courtyard beyond.

Swiftly and without any warning noise, she notched the arrow and let fly. It sang through the air, parted the demon's long white hair, and sank deep into the small of his back. He gasped, staggering a few paces and clutching at the wound, then wrenched the arrow from his flesh. Once free of his body and in the grasp of his poisoned talons, it dissolved into dust.

Then he whipped around to lock gazes with Kagome.

'_Oh, NO_,' she thought. '_The arrow didn't kill him. He still has the SHARD. . _.'

Sesshoumaru's sharp gaze reddened, and a powerful light began to gather around him.

"You, girl, have just become an annoyance," he said coolly.

Then he expanded in all directions, into the form of the great Inu Youkai that he was.

Snarling, he came at her faster than she could ready her next arrow. Kagome dodged his enormous, snapping jaws, but then he reared up and fell upon the building itself, and with a great cracking of stone and broken timbers the palace began to collapse.

Kagome did not have time to jump clear of it, and she fell into the churning mass of falling debris. Her last coherent thought, before darkness took her, was that Inuyasha was still inside. As she fell she screamed his name.

**

* * *

**

In the Temple room, amongst bits of shattered wood and tile, Miroku lay prone and inert. The Wise called off the demon souls and ordered them back to from whence they came. The green light faded as the spirits slid silently into the Temple walls, where they resided in the prison of their own bones. Now only starlight fell upon the monk, forming a ragged circle of light around his body.

The Wise approached, beginning the incantations that would draw forth his soul. Never would they allow such a powerful soul escape their clutches. A soul not wielded was a soul wasted.

Yet when one of them bent down to touch Miroku, a great confusion arose.

"He is still alive," the man said, laying a finger on the monk's neck. "There is still a pulse." The man looked up from where he knelt, glaring at his fellows.

"The demon souls did not kill him," another said. "Though we commanded them. What does this mean?"

The one kneeling beside Miroku narrowed his eyes.

"It means that this monk, with the compassion he shows toward them, is too dangerous to be allowed to live."

From within the folds of his gray robes, he withdrew a long bone knife, carved with a serpent twining around its hilt.

From somewhere beyond the Temple walls, there came a resounding crash. It echoed through the city, and abruptly the air outside was filled with the cries of the warriors and the sounds of clanking armor. And above the din, there rang out a deafening roar as from the belly of a great beast.

The sorcerer with the knife paused, holding the blade just over Miroku's throat.

"Yaburenumaru?" he murmured. "Has he begun already? Why did he not wait for our aid?"

"No!" another corrected him, shaking his head. "It is not yet dawn! The prince is still human."

The Wise looked at each other in alarm.

"It is the Great Demon's son!" one of them exclaimed. "As the prince warned us!"

The sorcerer wielding the bone knife tucked it back into his robes and rose to his feet.

"Call forth our forces," he ordered sharply. He added a peculiar stress to the word "our." "Then send word to the warriors that the king is already dead. Tell them to avenge him."

The Wise immediately dispersed, moving through the Temple. Their chanting echoed down every hall like a chorus of ghosts, as they called forth every soul that the building contained. Yet one of the Wise remained by the side of the one who had given the order.

"Reikotsu-_sama_," he said, laying a hand on the sorcerer's arm. "Are you strong enough to lead us? The monk's spell did not harm you badly?"

The gray-eyed sorcerer smiled thinly, fingering the hard outline of the bone knife tucked into his obi.

"No," he answered. "Don't fear for me. Go. Prepare for battle. The warriors will die on the claws of the Inu Youkai lord. Then there will be none left to oppose us when we set Yaburenumaru on the throne."

"We are going to battle with the last of the Inu Youkai Line," the other sorcerer said to Reikotsu, narrowing his eyes shrewdly. "For in the end it is our blood he desires. We took the souls of his kin---he will not remain our ally."

Reikotsu nodded, smiling as if at some private joke.

"The demon lord will destroy the city if we do not kill him first," he agreed. "So we call forth all the forces bound to the Temple. All that we can muster. And we go to war."

The other sorcerer frowned at him, apparently somewhat puzzled by something.

"Reikotsu-_sama_. . .ah, never mind. What of the monk? Is he still to die?"

The gray-eyed sorcerer glanced down at Miroku, lying on the floor. His lip curled with dislike.

"No," he answered. "In light of recent events, I may have use for him."

The other sorcerer's brow smoothed again as he nodded and he turned to leave.

Gray-eyed Reikotsu stood silently for a moment, still fingering the knife.

"Wait," he called after the departing sorcerer. "The girl is not the only one bearing shards of the powerful jewel. The Inu Youkai carries one also. Cut it from him and you will sap his strength. Do _not_ let him take the girl's shards---for one such as he that kind of power would make him like a god and nothing will stop him. Only with the shards may we have any hope of defeating him."

The sorcerer nodded again and exited the room.

Smiling, Reikotsu bent and lifted Miroku's head by the hair.

"So your noble intentions saved you from the demon souls," he murmured. "But I won't let you live _much_ longer. The Tatesei Wise are right in one respect." He bent nearer to the monk's ear, then whispered: "The only true strength in this world comes from the power of demons."

Reikotsu proceeded to lift Miroku in his arms, as if the monk weighed nothing. Then he bore him from the room.

**

* * *

**

In a darkened alley, Shippou transformed back into Kitsune-shape with a resounding pop. He and Asano tumbled to the ground. Asano, though apparently somewhat weakened by what he'd just endured, pushed himself into a sitting position to get a proper look at his rescuer.

"Thank you, young Kitsune," he said formally. "If you had not saved me, I might very well be dead thanks to my brother's treachery." The prince paused, frowning. "But what of your friend the monk? The Wise will kill him. We must warn my father of this immediately, because the Wise seem to be gathering for some kind of battle."

Asano leaped to his feet and hurried to the end of the alley. He peered around a corner and out into the streets. There seemed to be some kind of commotion---there were soldiers running in all directions.

Still panting from exhaustion, Shippou eyed Asano suspiciously.

"Why do you trust me so much?" he asked. "'Cause I AM a demon, you know. . ."

The prince glanced back over his shoulder.

"I share my father's desire for peace," he answered seriously. "And I don't think someone is evil because of _what_ they are---only because of what they choose to be."

The Kitsune shrugged.

"Makes sense," he said, coming over to peek out of the alley beside the prince. "What's going on? Are the Wise attacking the soldiers? What's all the commotion for?"

"I don't know," Asano answered, frowning. He looked very much like his father when he frowned. "Maybe they're trying to find my brother before he transforms into a demon. Or maybe they're trying to protect my father from the Wise. . ."

The answer to their questions suddenly reared its huge, white head above the rooftops not more than three streets over. Stone and wood beams and roof tiles flew every which way in its wake, and then the head lowered slightly to reveal burning red eyes and a mouth full of fangs. The great nostrils flared, seeming to draw in a scent, and then there was a series of resounding crashes as it began to move through the city. Every fall of the huge paws crushed yet another building, and the night air was suddenly filled with screams.

"What---what IS that?" Shippou asked in a quavering voice. He had never seen Sesshoumaru's true Youkai form.

"An Inu Youkai," Asano breathed, wonderingly. "_This_ was what my brother's spirit messenger warned the Wise about. _This_ is the last living son of the Great Demon. . ."

Shippou's eyes widened to disturbing proportions.

"That's INUYASHA?!!" he exclaimed. "Since when does he turn into THAT?!!!"

Privately, the Kitsune was thinking, '_We should've all been riding HIM, instead of WALKING all this way.'_

"You're mistaken," Asano said, looking down at Shippou. "My father told me stories about the Great Demon's son. Have you ever heard of Sesshoumaru?"

The Kitsune's jaw dropped.

"Oh, NO!!" he wailed. "HE'S here?! That THING is HIM?!"

Shippou gripped the prince's hand and began pulling him back down the alley, away from the dog demon's path of destruction.

"Come ON!" he cried. "If Sesshoumaru's attacking the city, we're doomed unless we can get to Inuyasha!"

He dragged the prince around a corner and then they were off, racing down the streets. From every side they were jostled by soldiers running and civilians fleeing in panic.

"Inuyasha?" Asano asked, looking shocked. "There is someone here with that name? The Inuyasha _I've_ heard of was killed by the Wise during my _grandfather's_ time. . ."

"He's Sesshoumaru's half-brother," Shippou informed him. "He was the one who cut off Sesshoumaru's left arm. He was introduced to you and your pop as 'Honnou,' but he's here to help you. He's going to protect the city from the demons."

Asano allowed himself to be pulled along, but his expression was now clouded with doubt. The name Inuyasha seemed to have made him even more ill at ease than the very real presence of Sesshoumaru did.

**

* * *

**

Through the city the white demon moved. The spears and blades of the warriors were mere flea-bites upon his thick hide. He swatted them aside or crushed them beneath his paws like the insects they were. He did not seek to attack the women or children fleeing his path of destruction, but neither did he make any effort to avoid crushing those in his way.

'_There are no children in Reiyama_,' he thought to himself.

His heart burned with rage so great its fire scorched him. It drove him onward, slavering poison and snarling in fury.

'_Only one thing will quench this fire_,' he thought. '_Only one.'_

With every building that he battered to the ground, he drew ever closer to the Temple.

'_Let the blood of the Wise rain over me_,' Sesshoumaru thought, red eyes narrowed to slits. '_Let it RAIN. Let it cleanse this city of death, until the souls of my kin are free. Let there be death and death and death, until this scorching pain in my heart is quenched._ . .'

**

* * *

**

The Tatesei palace now lay in shambles---a pile of gilded wreckage that still glittered in the light of the coming dawn.

Something stirred beneath the mounds of debris, and then Inuyasha burst forth from one of the piles, scattering wood and broken tiles in every direction. With one vicious yank he freed Tetsusaiga from the beam pinning it down and slid it into its sheath. Then he looked around him in alarm and sniffed the air.

"Kagome!" he cried. "KAGOME! Where ARE you? SAY something!"

Inuyasha sniffed again and found the scent of her blood. He attempted to follow it to its source, stumbling in his haste to reach her. Then, off to his right, the debris stirred faintly. In a flash he was kneeling by it, digging with a fury born of desperation.

"Kagome!" he cried again when he had found her and lifted her free.

She coughed weakly and attempted to rub the dust from her eyes. One arm, however, was bent at an odd angle and would not obey.

"Ow," she whimpered. But she moved her legs, and nothing else seemed to be broken. The blood on her was only from scratches and splinters.

"I tried to kill him," she told Inuyasha. "I _tried_. But he's too powerful. And now he's going to kill them _all_. . ."

Suddenly she found herself pulled tightly against his chest. His heart thundered in her ears.

Inuyasha buried his face in her hair.

"I've been a coward," he told her raggedly. "I had the chance, and I didn't. I _couldn't_. Damnit, Kagome, I _hate_ them! Sesshoumaru was right. I _hate_ them. . . And because I didn't kill him you could have died. . ."

Gently, Kagome pushed him away, raising her head. She placed one hand upon his cheek, ignoring the blood that was seeping from a cut there. Her own hands were slashed cruelly from when she had tried to hold onto the collapsing tiles.

"I'm okay," she told him, making an effort to smile. "And now you have the chance to make it right. Because you're stronger than your brother."

"What?" Inuyasha asked, frowning. "What d'you mean?"

Kagome paused, as if uncertain of what to say, but then she seemed to gather her confidence.

"Stop him," she said solemnly. "He's going to kill everyone." She paused, wincing, then said, "There are good people in this city, Inuyasha. People worth saving."

Inuyasha's expression was very somber.

"Kagome, you don't _know_," he insisted. "Demon hatred runs deeper than you could _ever _know." He grasped her good hand, gazing at her with an earnest expression. "The Wise are evil. Sesshoumaru's doing what I was never brave enough to do. He's facing them, as my father would have. He's facing them like a demon."

Regardless of the pain, Kagome lifted her wounded arm, because he held her other hand too tightly. She placed her fingers over his lips, to silence him.

"You're stronger than Sesshoumaru," she told him, "because I don't see _you_ out there killing innocent people. _You_ have the strength to face the Wise as a man, because your heart is strong."

Inuyasha went silent, pulling a bit of a face.

'_My heart is. . .?_' he thought. This sounded suspiciously like romantic fan service to _him_.

But dutifully Inuyasha mulled over Kagome's advice, took a deep breath, and then nodded slowly.

"I'll go," he told her. "Get on."

He knelt while Kagome climbed onto his back.

"Can you hold on?" Inuyasha asked, glancing back at her in concern. "With the arm?"

Biting her lip, Kagome nodded, wrapping both arms around Inuyasha and determinedly forcing herself not to show how much pain she was in. He needed to do this now, or hundreds of innocent people were going to be slaughtered. And he needed her eyes, to see the shards.

Inuyasha drew Tetsusaiga. It blazed brightly in the fading darkness, as it could only do when he meant to protect human life.

Then they were off, crossing the city as quickly as possible, heading for the Temple.

**

* * *

**

Atop the city's northern wall, Yaburenumaru stood watching the sun rise. The walls had long since been abandoned---the warriors were now battling for their very lives against the white demon's wrath.

'_Let them die upon his fangs,_' Yaburenumaru thought viciously. '_They once drove me from my home as if I were some soulless beast. . _.'

He closed his eyes, then opened them slowly. And the red light of the morning sun was mirrored therein.

'_Soon,_' he thought. _'Soon it will be ended, and I will be king. Let the Wise bring down the last sons of the Great Demon. Let the Inu Youkai Line finally pass from this world._'

Then the first rays touched him, and his body rose into the hulking shape of the demon.

**END OF CHAPTER 8**

_Yamisui: kukuku CRY HAVOC AND LOOSE THE DOGS OF WAR!_


	9. The Trap Is Sprung

**# # # THE BEARERS OF THE SHARDS # # #**

**# # Chapter 9: The Trap Is Sprung # #**

When at last the raging Inu Youkai had carved himself a bloody path to the Temple, the Wise were waiting for him. They stood silently upon the Temple stair, like a series of identical gray statues. Were it not for the brightness of their hard, cold eyes it would seem their faces had been carved from granite.

A last line of warriors formed between the demon and his prey. They braced themselves against spears held upright, hoping merely to gouge the white demon's paws at best. Snarling, the demon lowered its head. From his gaping jaws dripped foul purple saliva, from which there arose a vapor so thick the figures of the humans on the ground below were temporarily obscured by it.

The warriors' deaths were not easy.

The Wise watched, silent and dispassionate.

Then the fierce visage of the Inu Youkai burst through the veil of poisoned fumes. He did not pause to orient himself but flew at his enemies without hesitation. He knew from past experience that the Wise would allow him no time for strategy.

True to his memories, as he fell upon them there was a sudden rush as of wind, and their demon souls were all around him. Sesshoumaru remembered this chill, this ice in his very bones, from years ago, when a young demon lord stood alone and afraid on the field of battle. He didn't banish these memories, but instead allowed them to fuel the fires of his rage, laying about him with claw and fang.

Many Wise fell with Sesshoumaru's first assault, mowed down and slashed into bloody pulp by his blows. Three-legged though he was, he was lightning-quick and made all the stronger by the shard he carried.

But the ice in his bones grew unbearable, like a flame set alight yet cold as the grave. From behind the Wise ranks of Greater Youkai arose, and his heart froze at the sight of them. These were Sesshoumaru's kinsmen, his family. These were the first warriors to protect the Tatesei, before that Line became consumed by its own darkness.

The sight of them filled him with darkness of his own. He was infinitely glad that his father was not among them. His father's spirit was free.

The souls of the Greater Youkai slashed at him from every angle, and Sesshoumaru began to bleed. The souls of these demons were so powerful that, amplified by the spells of the Wise, they gained substance with which to fight. Roaring, Sesshoumaru plowed through their midst. Though they struck him mercilessly, he refused to attack them. He did not know if such a thing was even _possible_---to damage a ghost---but nevertheless he didn't try. These were faces he knew.

Instead he plunged forward and crashed full force into the Temple.

'_If I can destroy this place, and the bones that bind them to this life, then they will be free_,' he reasoned. '_The Wise may die after, but first the souls. . ._'

As the first bone pillars began to crack beneath his massive weight, the Greater Youkai spirits flew at him in a fury. His heaving sides now ran red with blood, yet again and again he lunged at the Temple.

Despite the strong will driving him toward his vengeance, however, Sesshoumaru was becoming increasingly aware of the fierce, biting cold that crept through his flesh at the touch of the souls. The shard within him pulsed, holding it at bay as he steeled himself against the pain.

'_I have faced this before_,' he thought angrily, '_and lived. And I did then what I intended to do. I WILL survive THIS. . ._'

**

* * *

**

The Wise had not broken form when the Inu Youkai attacked, despite the heavy losses that it had cost them. The souls of their comrades would serve them still, even though death had claimed them. Their chanting rose in intensity, reverberating through the air so that it seemed a host of a thousand men stood there rather than a hundred.

The souls of the dead sorcerers, bound by magic to their fellows, rose upward. Yet they could not complete their ascent, and sank earthward again, wailing. Those nearest them altered the spells that they called, and soon the ghostly forms of the dead Wise reformed beside their living comrades. Their voices had a strange, echoing quality---somehow purer than those of the living and no less powerful.

"Still he comes!" one sorcerer said to gray-eyed Reikotsu in wonderment. "He cares nothing for his own life!"

Reikotsu stood apart from the others, watching silently. The sorcerer who addressed him had broken rank to see why he stood apart.

"It is the shard," Reikotsu murmured, not sparing the other man a glance. His cold gaze was riveted upon the awesome form of the white demon above him. "The sacred jewel shard that he carries protects him from the souls' deadly chill."

The other sorcerer followed Reikotsu's gaze with narrowed eyes.

"He is so strong," the man commented. "But his strength must surely be leaving him; his blood is raining down on us!" The sorcerer paused, and then his eyes widened in realization of something. "_What_? All those years ago. . . _He_ was the one who. . .?"

Reikotsu glanced over at his fellow with interest.

"Yes?" he inquired.

The other sorcerer shook his head, frowning a little at his superior.

"We must take the shard _soon_," he insisted. "He's destroying the Temple."

Reikotsu smiled a little, returning his gaze to the raging demon above.

"No," he said softly. "Not yet."

The other sorcerer's eyes widened.

"Master, _why_?" he demanded. "We cannot afford to waste any _time_!"

Reikotsu's smile deepened.

"Because more shards are coming. And all the players have not yet arrived."

'_And the more of the Wise that Sesshoumaru destroys_,' he thought to himself, _'the fewer contenders there will be. . .'_

**

* * *

**

Inuyasha landed on a rooftop near the Temple and perched there a moment, assessing the situation. Ahead of him a battle was raging between his brother and the Wise. The sight temporarily rendered him stunned and speechless. He shifted into a crouching position, careful not to dislodge Kagome, whom he was still carrying.

"What _are_ those things?" Kagome asked into his ear.

Inuyasha was still carrying her, but he wasn't sure he wanted to carry her into_ this_. . .

"They're the souls of demons," he told her. "The Wise trapped them. They're attacking Sesshoumaru." He laid Tetsusaiga across his knees, balancing it there. "Kagome, where's his shard located?" he asked grimly.

"Um. . ." She hesitated before answering. "You don't have to fight him, Inuyasha."

"WHAT?!" he exclaimed, turning around so fast that Kagome fell of his back and landed on the roof on her rump. The roof was slanted, and she had a rather bumpy slide downward until Inuyasha stopped her with one outstretched hand. "Hey, YOU were the one who told me I have to stop him!"

Kagome's most immediate response was a swift slap in the face. Inuyasha rubbed at the red mark while she righted herself. He was about to launch into a very lengthy string of swear words when he reflected that the outstretched hand might have caught her in a rather importune place.

"Eh---?" he began, fearing the worst, but Kagome seemed to have gotten it out of her system with the slap.

"I _meant_ that you don't _need_ to fight him," she explained. "Because he's already dying."

"What? Really?" Inuyasha turned to watch the battle. He didn't seem overly upset about this. "How can you tell?"

"Well," Kagome began, rather reluctantly, "it's not just that he's bleeding a lot. I can _see_ the _kehai_ of the demon souls attacking. Every time they sort of. . .pass through him. . .the _kehai_ gets stronger. And his gets weaker."

"He must be fucking _determined_ to destroy the Temple," Inuyasha remarked. "We know from his _last_ little Tetsusaiga-fetching visit that he isn't one to go risking his life. Fucking coward." This, of course, referred to the incident where Sesshoumaru gave up and left Inuyasha alone once the hanyou had regained possession of Tetsusaiga.

"Uh. . .his poison doesn't seem to be killing the Wise," Kagome murmured. "Inuyasha, if he dies they're going to take his shard. We have to stop them."

"Have to---?" Inuyasha's mood was borderline frustration. "Kagome, do you _realize_ that while we're '_rescuing_' him he could fucking _squash_ us?" He added in low murderous tones, "And he'd probably _enjoy_ it, too. . ." He looked up from his dark mutterings. "Just tell me where the shard is. So when he finally croaks I can get it before _they_ do."

Kagome glanced up at the towering Inu Youkai and the massive specters around him.

"Er. . .it's in his rear end," she answered, rather apologetically.

Inuyasha nodded, then realized belatedly what she'd just said.

"Tell me you're kidding," he told her, glaring at her. "'Cause the odds are pretty _slim _of that happening _twice_."

Kagome shrugged, looking embarrassed. After all, it was _Sesshoumaru's_ rear end that they were discussing.

"I'm _not_ joking, Inuyasha," she insisted.

They had a bit of a staring contest for a minute, but finally it was Inuyasha who blanched and looked away.

"I'm _not_ getting _this_ shard," he told her, in a hollow, dead sort of way.

Apparently he drew the shard-fetching line at the rear ends of male siblings. These, apparently, were more offensive than purple spiders'.

"Good," Kagome replied, pulling a face. "So stop wasting time and get down there."

He stood up, then prepared to leap from the roof to the ground.

"Hey, wait a sec!" Kagome protested. "What about _me_?"

Inuyasha turned and glared at her.

"_You're_ staying _right here_," he commanded, jabbing a clawed finger in her direction. "Since I'm not getting a shard, I don't need you! So stay here and keep out of sight, okay?"

Without further ado, he leaped from the building. Kagome watched him land in a crouched position, one hand still holding Tetsusaiga ready.

"Be careful," she whispered.

**

* * *

**

Frantically, Shippou pulled Asano down the dark, narrow side-streets.

"Y'know, once we reach the palace Inuyasha will help us," the Kitsune told his comrade, who had gone very quiet. "So you can stop worrying."

Save for the initial directions of how to get to the palace, Asano had said very little since Shippou's mention of Inuyasha.

They reached the palace grounds without mishap, but when they came within sight of the building that served as the king's audience hall, both children stopped in their tracks.

"What. . .?" Shippou began, confused. "Inuyasha said he was coming here to protect your father. He didn't say he was going to WRECK the place. . ."

"Father!" Asano cried suddenly, and took off at once, racing toward the ruins of the building.

They lay in a broken heap. The whole place seemed to have crashed inward, as if hammered by a giant's fist.

"Yaburenumaru," Asano said softly, coming to stand in front of it.

Shippou caught up with him.

"You think he did this?" the Kitsune asked, wide-eyed. "Then he can't have done it long ago, because the sun's only just risen. He hasn't been in demon form that LONG."

"FATHER!" Asano yelled, cupping his hands to his mouth. "IF YOU CAN HEAR, ANSWER ME! IT IS ASANO, YOUR SON!"

They stood there a moment, waiting, but no answer came.

"Maybe he's fled with Inuyasha?" Shippou suggested hopefully. "Maybe if we hurry we can catch up with them!"

Asano swallowed and shook his head. For a moment, he looked as if he was going to cry, but instead he took a deep breath and said, "Let's go. If he can't answer we'll never find him under all this."

Shippou nodded. "But where will we go, then?"

The prince grabbed him by the shoulder and pointed at somewhere beyond the ruined heap.

"We'll take the Last Road," he answered. "It's a secret, known only to the king and his heir."

Shippou shook off his arm.

"NO WAY!" he barked. "I'm too YOUNG to commit suicide!"

"That's _not_ what I meant!" Asano explained, looking flustered. "It's a tunnel, leading under the lake. If the city is under attack and the walls are breached, then the royal family is to flee using this passage."

"But if the WHOLE royal family is supposed to escape, why only tell the king and his heir?" Shippou wanted to know.

Asano seemed a bit embarrassed.

"Well, the king and his _heir_ certainly won't be the ones to stage a revolt from within the city, will they?" he asked.

Shippou gave him a rather cynical look.

"So demons aren't the ONLY ones you people don't trust, huh?"

The two of them hurried through the palace grounds, to a far room overlooking the water. There Asano slid aside the screen facing east and led Shippou down a small staircase beyond it. It led down into a small alcove set at water level, so that it appeared to be under the lake. Then they slide aside a large marble slab and ducked into the dark mouth of the tunnel.

Asano slid the slab closed behind them.

"Hey!" Shippou exclaimed. "Just how long will we have to walk in the dark? I can't see a THING here."

"You're a Kitsune," the prince reminded him. "Conjure something up."

"Oh, right," Shippou replied sheepishly. "_FOXFIRE_."

A small but very bright ball of green flame materialized, hovering just over the Kitsune's tiny palm. Ahead of him he could see the long, black path that lay ahead of them. There were no torches along it to light the way---given the humidity beneath the lake, there would be too much smoke. The walls were stone covered in slimy moss; the air was warm and fetid.

Shippou and Asano started walking briskly. It was apparent that neither of them wished to linger here.

After they had been traveling for what seemed like ages, Shippou asked, "How much longer, d'you think? This place reeks!" In fact, it reminded the Kitsune acutely of the swampland they had traversed at the beginning of the journey to Reiyama.

"Be patient," Asano told him firmly, though the authority in his voice sounded very much like an act to cover up his nervousness. "It can't be _much_ farther. The idea of the tunnel was to get the royal family out of the city as fast as possible. So it can't be much longer."

The greenish glow of Shippou's foxfire revealed the prince's wide-eyed, rather frightened gaze, which was fixed upon the darkness ahead.

After another long period of silence, Asano asked, "Do you hear something?"

Shippou stopped walking to listen. He tilted his head to one side as if to cock one pointy ear. There _was_ a sound nearby. It sounded like something was making a light tapping noise, but there were long spaces between the taps. The spaces seemed to last about five seconds.

"Where is it coming from?" Shippou asked Asano. "Can you tell?"

The prince didn't answer, listening with a frown.

Each tap echoed through the tunnel, so that it was impossible to identify its location.

Then there was one final tap, and no more came after. A bit of moss fell from the ceiling, landing on the stone floor between the prince and the Kitsune. Both of them slowly turned their faces upward.

"Uh. . ." Shippou began.

The two of them turned back toward the direction of the exit and took off at a run.

* * *

"_DIE_, YOU CREEPY BASTARDS!"

For a moment the chanting of the Wise faltered as every head turned to see the source of this outburst. The dead, of course, continued, ghostly lips moving to form words of necromancy as they stood in rank with their living comrades.

The living were treated to the spectacle of one very irate hanyou flying towards them, wielding a very large, glowing sword and bellowing obscenities.

He landed in their midst and began laying about him with his sword. The blade seemed to be enchanted---its very kenatsu slashed through layers of gray cloth and thick leather armor to hew apart the vulnerable flesh beneath.

Under the assault of this new foe, the Wise fell back toward the Temple, where the massive form of the Inu Youkai thrashed and snarled.

"Reikotsu-_sama_! We MUST call the others!"

The gray-eyed sorcerer turned toward his comrade, wearing no readable expression.

"The. . .others," he repeated slowly. "Yes, to keep us from being pushed back into the white demon's path. Do it."

Reikotsu's attention was drawn toward the building across the way, where the girl hid behind a pillar on the roof.

"Now the trap is sprung," he murmured, more to himself than his comrade. "The time has come to take the shards. . ."

"Master," the other sorcerer persisted. "The risk? What of the RISK?"

Reikotsu shook his head, fixing his subordinate with an imperious stare. He didn't care about 'the risk' any more.

He broke rank and vanished from view into the cloud of poisoned vapor rising from the ground.

**

* * *

**

Kagome knelt atop the roof, hiding behind a stone column. She peered around the bottom of the pillar, watching the battle below worriedly. She could see Sesshoumaru outlined in ghostly green light, surrounded the spirits of his kin. His strength seemed to have waned, because he had stopped attempting to smash more of the Temple and now seemed to be fighting merely to stay standing. But her sense of the shard within Sesshoumaru had grown even stronger than it had been at the palace, and she was not sure he would die so easily.

She couldn't see Inuyasha below, but she could track his progress by watching for flashes of Tetsusaiga's _kenatsu_ through the screen of vapor. Beyond the vapor, Kagome also thought she saw the vague forms of the Wise, only these seemed to glow and shift in and out of focus. She surmised that these were the dead ones.

From what she could see, the attention of the Wise was utterly focused on repelling the two Inu Youkai to preserve themselves and their Temple. All other Tatesei had cleared the area, for obvious reasons.

Thus it came as a complete and total surprise to Kagome when a long, thin hand clamped itself across her mouth. It happened so fast that screaming never occurred to her. Another arm clamped itself around her wounded arm, pinning it behind her back. She stiffened with pain, whimpering. Her free arm flailed about, only making contact with the gray silk of Reikotsu's robes. She had never seen him coming.

"Kagome, isn't it?" he breathed into her ear. "So glad to see you. . ."

Kagome's eyes widened. The hand removed itself from her mouth, but still she didn't scream. Inuyasha would never hear her over the racket Sesshoumaru was making.

'_But. . .why didn't I sense this BEFORE?_' she thought, fearfully. '_The shard he carries. . . The kehai from Sesshoumaru's shard must have been too strong for me to notice THIS one. . .'_

The long, thin fingers splayed across her collar bone, entangling themselves in the chain around her throat. Then the hand tightened convulsively into a fist and wrenched the chain until it broke. Kagome's attacker seemed to take some time pocketing the shards, but he still did not release her.

"You have the shards," she told him, thinking quickly. "Now let me go."

"Oh no," he purred in her ear. Kagome felt the blade's kiss at her throat even though she could not see it. "No, because I am going to finish this." The knife moved just a little, not enough to scratch her but just enough for her to feel the sharpness. "The 'Wise' will destroy Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru. The monk is all but dead." He paused, thoughtfully. "And if I am not mistaken, the prince and the fox-child will soon be taken care of as well."

'_He's caught us so easily,'_ Kagome thought, horrified. '_We never had a CHANCE of realizing. . .'_

His lips curved into a thin, cruel smile as he bent nearer. His embrace was close as a lover's, save for the bone knife that he held at her throat.

"You wear her face, but you haven't her wisdom," he murmured. "_She_ would have known. But you are not the same. And the passions of the Inu Youkai Clan burn so much brighter than reason. Sesshoumaru and that despicable brother of his were blinded by vengeance from the very beginning. Or perhaps Inuyasha was merely blinded by stupidity. . ."

He ran the back of his hand down the side of her cheek, with sickening tenderness.

"Don't TOUCH me!" Kagome cried, struggling against the confines of his vise-like grip.

With her free arm, she managed to draw an arrow from her quiver, which still hung over one shoulder even though her bow had been lost. Before he could stop her, she clenched the hand that held it into a fist, and drove it backward with all her might.

There was a sudden, brilliant flash of light, and then suddenly she was free of him. Kagome whipped around to see that he had staggered backward about five feet, alarm registering in his eyes.

In his violet eyes, burning through the face of Reikotsu the sorcerer.

"Don't come near me again," Kagome warned him. "I'm not a _miko_, but my arrows can still hurt you."

Naraku clutched at his side, where her arrow had struck. Yet he began to laugh---a low, cold laugh that sent chills down her spine.

"_Foolish_ child," he told her. "You think I'll die so _easily_? This is but a _kugutsu_---a puppet!"

"I can drive you out of that body," Kagome answered. Her face was set into a fierce and beautiful determination. Had Inuyasha seen it at this moment, he would have been unnerved by her sudden eerie resemblance to Kikyou. "I'll stab you if you come near and make you leave him. From just one cut your eyes have become your own and not his."

"I think not," Naraku said, the smile leaving Reikotsu's face. "The gray-eyed one's soul fled when your dear monk struck him with his own spell. This body is mine now; I've taken a liking to it. You're wounded and you can't hold a bow. Your arrow won't touch me again."

He began advancing toward her, wearing human flesh yet moving more fluidly than any mortal could have. Heart slamming in her chest, Kagome retreated, then realized that she was being pushed toward the edge of the roof. A bit of loose tile crumbled away beneath her foot and fell earthward behind her.

_'What NOW?_' Kagome thought, her brain frantically searching for an answer. None came. There was no way out of this.

"You see. . .I need not touch you to kill you," Naraku told her in a voice low and hateful.

Kagome took a deep breath; felt it fill her chest with strength.

_'It's strength I need now_,' she thought. _'To do this. . ._'

She took a slow and measured step toward him, as if into his dark embrace. Then she clenched her fist around the arrow in her hand and rushed at him with all her strength. Naraku's eyes flashed the cruel glitter of a hawk sighting prey. Reikotsu's face twisted into a fierce grin, a death's head grimace, and before the arrow's head ever reached him, he caught her and flung her from him, from the roof.

Hard.

**

* * *

**

Inuyasha lay about him with such ferocious swiftness that at times he wondered if Tetsusaiga had not become an extension of his arm. His father's murderers fell before him, hewn down by his sword. Yet in the midst of this righteous rage there was the knowledge of what it was he must do. The demon in him urged him forth to destruction. Yet the human in him drew him instead toward Sesshoumaru, toward the shard that he must protect, and he did not give in as his brother had.

So through the ranks of the Wise he moved, cutting himself a path to the heart of the Temple. Into the crumbling, darkened halls he plunged, through men and spirits, whose chill froze his very blood.

_'The shard_,' Inuyasha thought desperately, feeling his body weaken with every soul that touched him. _'Must reach the shard. . .'_

He did not smell Naraku, because here his brother's _kehai_ was too strong and overpowered all else.

**

* * *

**

In the midst of the collapsing Temple, Sesshoumaru's head bent earthward, drooping lower with every assault, and the assaults came at him relentlessly from all sides. He no longer fought; he could scarcely move. The ground beneath him was stained crimson with his blood. The air around him was frozen with the killing cold of the Tatesei sorcery.

He raised his head one last time, to see the last of them come at him. It was a face familiar to him---a face very much like his own. A soul like his, yet bound and enslaved to do the bidding of men.

_'So,_' Sesshoumaru thought, as he began to fall, _'the last Inu Youkai goes to join those gone before. He dies on his feet, like a true Lord of the West.'_

He was transforming back to his two-legged form---falling all the faster for it---and his hair streamed around his face, blinding him as the stone floor rushed up to meet him. Yet he was not afraid. He let loose what he knew to be his last breath in a soft, calm exhalation.

"_At_ _last_. . ." he breathed.

Then he struck stone, and all the world went cold.

**

* * *

**

At the outskirts of the Temple, in an empty, darkened room left untouched by Sesshoumaru's rampage, Miroku awoke with a gasp. For a moment, he could not move, shuddering and clasping his shoulders tightly. Then the images of the dead rolled away from him, and he realized that he was alone and unharmed. His head ached fiercely, but otherwise his limbs seemed to function normally, so he pushed himself to his feet and peered out into the hall.

There was no one there, though it was by no means silent. He could hear the inexorable chanting of the Wise outside, the wails of spirits, and a great cracking as of stone breaking. It sounded as if something massive was attacking the Temple.

"Yaburenumaru?" he muttered, puzzled. "What on earth is _happening_?"

Miroku strode down the hall toward the Temple door. Upon reaching it he slid it aside and found himself looking out onto a rather hellish scene of destruction, necromancy and gore.

He sighed. Some days it just didn't pay to get out of bed.

He was about to attempt a surprise attack on those Wise nearest him (who hadn't noticed him yet) when he sensed something else nearby.

_'Naraku?_' he thought, very much surprised. _'Here?'  
_  
Miroku plunged through the ranks of the Wise, much like Inuyasha had, laying about him with his staff. Yet the souls of the dead, while chilling him to the bone, did not weaken him, and he managed to break through. The plunge through the clouds of poisoned vapor rising from the viscous purple stuff on the ground was something else entirely. He had to use three oufudas for that. The Wise sent demon souls howling after him, but these neither struck him nor passed through him.

The first thing Miroku saw upon passing through the vapor was one of the Wise standing on the roof across the way. Then he saw the man catch hold of Kagome and throw her into the air as if she weighed no more than a feather.

There was a dark, sickly _kehai_ about the man, unlike the sinister green aura about the Wise.

"LADY KAGOME!" Miroku cried, running toward them as fast as he could.

He could see the whites of her eyes as she fell---and her nice white undergarments, too, though he supposed that at this point that was irrelevant.

He lunged forward and caught her, just before she hit the ground. The impact flung them both down, though, and for a moment all he could do was lie there until the stars cleared from his vision.

Then Miroku heard Kagome gasp and felt her move off of him. He thought this strange because he hadn't even groped her yet. But then he looked up and understood. Somehow the gray-eyed sorcerer had made the long jump from the roof to the ground, and now he loomed over them wearing an expression of intense disgust.

"How fortunate," the man remarked. "Now I can kill you both at once."

**END OF CHAPTER 9**

Bottom of Form


	10. The Battle For the Jewel

**# # # THE BEARERS OF THE SHARDS # # #**

**# # Chapter 10: The Battle For the Jewel # #**

The corridors abruptly became very difficult to traverse. This, Inuyasha surmised, was because this particular wing of the Temple was collapsing. He swore to himself that he'd make this quick, because he had no desire to be buried under rubble twice in one day. He knew he was getting closer to Sesshoumaru, though, because the spirits in his way grew thicker with every step he took.

He was beginning to notice something strange: the Youkai souls were not approaching him at a distance any closer than the radius of Tetsusaiga's_ kenatsu_. It was almost as if the sword were shielding him from them.

When at last Inuyasha came to the epicenter of all the commotion, he found himself literally right under his brother, staring up at an enormous white-ruffed chest and fierce Inu Youkai's head. The head lowered, drooping toward him, and for a moment Inuyasha thought his brother had recognized him, but then he saw in the red eyes, narrowed to slits, a look he knew well. He lowered Tetsusaiga, backing away slowly.

The spirits surrounding Sesshoumaru in a thick cloud also seemed to back away, and before Inuyasha's eyes the massive demon sank back into man-shape and began to fall.

The look in Sesshoumaru's eye was that of a man who knew he was to die and who embraced it at the last. Inuyasha, who was no stranger to death, knew it for what it was.

The Inu Youkai struck the ground hard, cracking the blood-slicked stone. His limbs splayed limply as he went completely still. The spirits hovered above, at the place where the roof had collapsed to reveal the gray, cloudy sky beyond. They didn't seem to be threatening him at the moment, so Inuyasha approached the prone figure lying on the floor.

Sesshoumaru's hair fanned out beneath his head, which was turned ever so slightly in Inuyasha's direction. A faint ray of sunlight caught the red glint of the Inu Youkai's eye.

Inuyasha approached him cautiously. He seemed to be _mostly_ dead, but you never knew with Sesshoumaru, whose face was naturally pale and deadpan anyway.

Boldly, Inuyasha nudged Sesshoumaru's arm with his foot. The red eye glared fixedly up at him, but his brother didn't move. Inuyasha planted the foot on the fuzzy, tail-like thing, which had come half-unwrapped from the Inu Youkai's shoulder. Inuyasha had no tail, but he was sure this kind of treatment would hurt if you had one. Thus when his brother still didn't move, nor did the eye change its regard, he was reassured that no surprise attacks were pending.

He slung Tetsusaiga over one shoulder, glaring down at his half-dead sibling.

"If you think I'M digging the shard out of you, FORGET IT!" Inuyasha bellowed. "YOU'RE going to stay alive just long enough to take it out YOURSELF!"

He walked around to the prone figure's feet, muttering, "Fucking arsehole, stowing it in such a stupid place..."

Still grumbling about what _else_ Sesshoumaru could shove up his ass, he took hold of one ankle and began dragging his brother across the stone floor. He wasn't quite sure _what _he was doing, but it was an alternative _eminently_ preferable to going digging for the shard. On the other hand, Inuyasha wasn't quite sure just _how_ he was going to make Sesshoumaru give him the shard.

He had just begun pondering which body part Sesshoumaru was likely to miss most when he saw the crowd of gray-robed men blocking the corridor. The Wise had come in silently and without warning. Now they stood watching him.

Inuyasha kept walking, fully intending to mow them all down with Tetsusaiga with his right hand while dragging Sesshoumaru with his left. He certainly wasn't about to let them get hold of the shard, and dragging his brother across the rough ground by the ankle was sort of satisfying.

The Wise didn't attack him, but neither did they clear out of his way when he reached them. Experimentally, he swiped at them with his sword. The sorcerers nearest him broke rank, but two of their number fell to the blade's _kenatsu_. Their comrades didn't spare them so much as a glance, but began a low, thrumming chant that set Inuyasha's teeth on edge.

"DON'T move, then," Inuyasha jeered at them, grinning fiercely. "It'll make you fucking easy to cut down." But despite his bravado he was unnerved. The Wise didn't seem to care if any of their own number died. After all, why bother to protect your fellow sorcerers when their ghosts could serve you just as well?

The pale forms of the dead Wise reformed in the midst of their comrades, chanting with hollow voices.

They were no longer sending Youkai spirits to attack Inuyasha---they were sending their own.

'_Crap_,' Inuyasha thought as he lay about him with Tetsusaiga. '_I can't kill the dead ones, and Tetsusaiga's kenatsu doesn't seem to repel the spirits of the WISE. . .'_

He couldn't use the sword to keep them _all_ away from Sesshoumaru, and he was more afraid of what the Wise might be capable of with a Shikon shard than he was of the fey, icy touch of the dead.

So he began to run.

The speed granted to him by his Youkai blood seemed to outstrip the floating/flying capabilities of the dead sorcerers, and it certainly outstripped those of the _living_ Wise. Thus with his unconscious brother in tow he took hasty leave of them, and finally burst free of the Temple's crumbling halls and into the carnage outside.

The ground was littered with human debris---dead sorcerers and dead soldiers and dead women and even the tiny crushed forms of dead children. Inuyasha dragged Sesshoumaru across it all, feeling that this was somehow appropriate. After all, it had been Sesshoumaru who had made all this mess. The white demon's clothing and hair, which had been soaked with his own blood, now became saturated with the blood of those he'd slaughtered.

Sesshoumaru was heavy. Glowering, Inuyasha tugged his brother's ankle and dragged him through the puddles of viscous poison. To Inuyasha's acute disappointment, however, the poison had no effect whatsoever, and only succeeded in tinting Sesshoumaru's new red look purple.

The vapor, meanwhile, stung Inuyasha's nose and made his eyes water. He flung up the arm bearing Tetsusaiga and pressed it against his eyes to keep it out of them as he plowed through the vapor. When he had cleared the poisoned areas, he removed the arm, and what he saw then made him drop Sesshoumaru's foot. The white demon's leg landed on the stones with a thud---Sesshoumaru was very heavy.

"Shit," Inuyasha breathed. "KAGOME!"

The gray-eyed sorcerer stood over Kagome and Miroku, who crouched on the ground, looking stunned.

"INUYASHA!" Kagome cried, never taking her eyes off her opponent. "It's NARAKU! He's taken the SHARDS!"

Naraku didn't even glance at Inuyasha but swiped downward with the bone knife in his hand. He moved with demon speed, but Miroku moved first, raising his staff in time to block the blow. Kagome, shielded by the monk's body, gasped and attempting to crawl backward, but she was half-paralyzed with fear and didn't get far.

The sorcerer's knife shed sparks as the two weapons met. In a flash Naraku had pulled back his hand and stabbed downward again, only to find himself blocked once again by Miroku's staff. The force of the blow vibrated down the length of it, jangling the rings at the top.

The corners of Naraku's lips lifted in a cruel smile, and Miroku glared at him.

Then, in a flash, the monk flung Kagome aside and unwrapped the Wind Tunnel in his hand. With equal swiftness, Naraku produced a small, round hive from the folds of his robes (which, voluminous as they were, could apparently contain any number of things). He held it out to Miroku as if offering a gift.

"Go ahead," Naraku urged the monk, who seemed to be hesitating. "Take it and die."

Miroku's face flushed as he rose slowly to his feet.

"I don't care, as long as I take you with me," he said in a low voice.

"Miroku, you _can't_!" Kagome warned. "He has the _shards_!"

"Miroku, don't you DARE!" Inuyasha shouted.

The monk half-turned in surprise as Inuyasha launched himself past and slashed viciously at Naraku with his sword. Naraku dodged the blow, seeming unruffled, and Tetsusaiga struck the stone pillar behind him instead. While he wrenched it free, Naraku seized the opportunity to put some distance between them, running at breakneck speed back toward the Temple.

"He's _running_?" Kagome asked, watching the demon's progress. "Why? He's _got_ the shards---he shouldn't be afraid to fight us. . ."

Miroku watched with narrowed eyes.

"Perhaps he's vulnerable in that body he's in," the monk told her. "It _is_ a human body, after all and---"

Miroku didn't have time to finish the sentence because at that moment Inuyasha came barreling into both of them, hauling them a good twenty feet before letting them go. The pillar from which he had wrenched Tetsusaiga had been cracked nearly in two, and the building was collapsing.

"What the FUCK were you two WAITING for?!" Inuyasha bellowed at their astonished faces. "I leave you alone for HALF AN HOUR and. . ."

"Thank you, Inuyasha," Miroku said calmly, while Kagome laid a placating hand on the _hanyou's_ arm.

Embarrassed, Inuyasha chose to ignore their gratitude and instead focused his scowl on the fleeing, gray-robed form.

"Naraku," he growled. "Hope you're ready to _die_. . ."

He lunged forward, pelting toward his enemy with Tetsusaiga upraised.

"Inuyasha, WAIT!" Miroku called after him. "This might be a trap!"

"LIKE I GIVE A DAMN!" Inuyasha yelled back.

Through the vapor rising around the Temple there shown the greenish lights of Tatesei sorcery.

"Inuyasha, the _Wise_ are---!" Kagome cried, but Miroku stepped in front of her, raising his right hand and flinging aside the prayer beads that bound it.

"_KAZAANA_!" he shouted.

Then things began to happen very quickly. The Wind Tunnel began to draw everything back toward Miroku. This included a barrage of debris and corpses, a cloud of poisoned vapor, and Inuyasha, who had been caught by surprise and had not had time to cement himself to something.

From behind Miroku Kagome could see that Naraku had been flung to the ground as the wind sucked his feet out from under him. He remained fastened where he was, however, because he had jammed his dagger hard into the earth. With the other hand, Naraku reached into the folds of his robe and tossed the Saimyoushou hive into the gale. Miroku didn't see it coming, but he had already closed the Wind Tunnel to prevent Inuyasha from being sucked in.

"YOU BASTARD! I AM GOING TO KICK YOUR ASS FOR THIIIIIIIIIS!" Inuyasha bellowed as he went hurtling past. The Wind Tunnel's momentum still had hold of him.

"I had to stop you from charging in blindly," Miroku told him, sidestepping to avoid being crashed into. He cast a grim eye toward the green lights beyond the screen of vapor. "The Wise are coming."

The Saimyoushou hive struck the ground hard and burst, releasing a torrent of the buzzing, whining creatures.

Miroku watched with great misgivings.

"I can't use my Wind Tunnel any more," he said worriedly.

"Damn," Inuyasha swore.

"You. . .will _not_. . .use it. . ._again_. . ."

All heads turned at the sound of this new voice, coming from the direction of the vapor.

"That's---?" Kagome and Inuyasha said at once.

Through the veil of poison, Sesshoumaru rose steadily to his feet.

"He's still _alive_?" Miroku murmured, nonplussed.

The white demon stood at his full height, still drenched in blood but glaring at the monk with a fierceness that indicated he wasn't going to die anytime soon.

'_That's right_,' Inuyasha thought. '_He still has the shard. Damnit, I should've taken it even though it's. . .'_

"Fool! You will _not_ use that attack again," Sesshoumaru repeated, taking a step toward them. "Or that hand will find itself detached from its owner before _you_ can utter a word. . ."

'_S---SCARY. . .'_ Kagome thought, drawing back.

Sesshoumaru's face was twisted with anger. None of them had seen him wear an expression like this. . .none save Inuyasha.

"Inuyasha," he said, in a voice low and menacing. "Call off this fool of a monk." He lowered his head, eyes burning. "Or is it nothing to you that the souls of our kin will be flung into the void?"

Inuyasha, who had just pried Tetsusaiga from the ground, did not raise it but stood there stunned. Once again he realized that Sesshoumaru was right---how could he have been so careless? Was he so human that he didn't care if his demon kindred's souls were cast into darkness?

But of course he wasn't about to admit that Sesshoumaru was right while standing in front of Sesshoumaru, so he threw out a red herring:

"While YOU'RE yakking Naraku is fucking ESCAPING!"

"Oh! He's disappeared through the vapor!" Miroku exclaimed.

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed.

"Has he?" he said softly.

Kagome, whose gaze was fixed upon the screen of poisoned fumes, said in a quavering voice, "The Wise are coming."

**

* * *

**

Through the veil of poison stepped the ranks of the Wise. They seemed to glide---like their dead comrades, who remained bound beside them by the invisible chains of sorcery. Their faces, hooded and fey, were focused now on the small group before them. Their eyes upon those they meant to kill were the eyes of humans, yet utterly devoid of human warmth. Naraku stood among them. His hood had been blown back from his face, revealing the violet eyes that burned through Reikotsu's grim countenance.

Shakily, Kagome rose to her feet, preparing to run. To her right, she heard Miroku gasp.

"_This_ is why he fled from us," the monk breathed. "He didn't want to fight us, because that would mean giving up the human body he's possessing. . . And _that_ would mean the Wise finding out that he's tricked them. . ."

A light bulb flared in Inuyasha's brain. He frowned (light bulbs were a rare occurrence).

'_Then THIS means. . ._' he thought, gripping Tetsusaiga's hilt more firmly.

"He's _afraid_ of them," Kagome finished his thought out loud. "The Wise could take _his_ soul, and he knows it!"

"Heh!" Inuyasha laughed to himself. "He's used them to set a trap for us, but he may have gotten more than he bargained for!" He slung Tetsusaiga over one shoulder. "HEY NARAKU!" he jeered. "ISN'T USING PUNY HUMANS AS ATTACK DOGS BENEATH EVEN YOU?!"

The Wise did not react to this heckling, having no clue who Naraku was. Naraku's eyes blazed, and Reikotsu's mouth curved upward in a cruel, thin cross between a smile and a grimace of disgust.

"Kill them all," he ordered. "The two white demons first---they would destroy this city." His gaze flickered as it came to rest upon Sesshoumaru. "That one possesses a shard of the Shikon Jewel. Take it from him."

To everyone's surprise, Sesshoumaru laughed softly.

"Fool," he said. "I do not need the shard to defeat you."

"Heh," Naraku murmured. "Brash words from a man who's drenched with his own blood." To the sorcerers around him, he said, "Do it now."

The Wise began to chant.

"Naraku," Sesshoumaru said calmly. "Why should the Wise serve you? The Tatesei do not serve under demons. I wonder. . .how long can you keep that human form. . .with my claws at your throat?"

With lightning speed Sesshoumaru flew at the line of sorcerers, clearing the entire distance in one bound. Demon souls flew at him. Naraku did not transform.

"I wonder," Sesshoumaru murmured, as he arced down toward his prey, "if afterward they will force your soul to serve _them_?"

"KILL HIM!" Naraku demanded through Reikotsu's lips. He did not break rank with the Wise.

Sesshoumaru was almost upon him when the voices of the Wise rose in intensity. From the Temple there emerged a great Inu Youkai spirit---a great giant of a beast, larger still than Sesshoumaru's transformed shape. It caught him mid-air, and flung him backward, pinning him to the ground. With its teeth and one great paw it pressed him into the dirt, snarling and gnashing its fangs.

"Idiot," Inuyasha muttered, watching his brother writhe beneath the demon's claws.

"Arrogant fool," Naraku called to Sesshoumaru. "That soul has fed on so much of your life-force that it has gained substance. You can't pass through it _this_ time."

It seemed that Naraku spoke the truth. The Inu Youkai soul was not the pale, glowing shade that the others had been. It looked opaque and almost alive, except for around the edges, where its form wavered and blurred against the gray sky. And Sesshoumaru lay trapped beneath it, seemingly unable to throw it off. It had become a solid, real opponent, and strong as the Great Demons of old had been.

To a few of the sorcerers Naraku ordered, "Go. Finish him and take the shard. Once we have gathered all the shards, these infidels will be powerless!"

Some of the Wise left to do his bidding. The others closed rank around him, suddenly a new barrage of spirits flew forth from the Temple, heading for Inuyasha, Kagome and Miroku.

"Brace yourselves!" Inuyasha shouted to his friends. "It's going to get REAL cold in a second!"

"Not if I can help it!" Miroku told them.

He stepped in front of Inuyasha and Kagome before either one could protest. When the distance between Miroku and the attackers had all but closed, he raised his staff. For the briefest of instants, the air between Miroku and the demons crackled and groaned. Then a hemisphere of light arced overhead, forming a kind of protective shell over the three mortals. The demons swarmed over it, clashing against it in a fury. Sparks flew from where they struck it, but they could not penetrate it.

Muttering a fervent prayer, he withdrew several _oufuda_ from the folds of his robe, plastering them on the barrier's surface. Now the demons that attacked the hemisphere drew back with howls of rage at its touch.

But they would not retreat.

"I can't hold this forever," Miroku warned his friends. His face looked pale and strained. "I was attacked earlier when we rescued Asano, and I fear much of my strength has been drained."

"Just hold on," Inuyasha told him fiercely. "We'll think of _something_. . . Kagome, what the HELL do you think you're DOING?!"

She had moved to the edge of the barrier, and had just stepped through it and into the seething mass of souls outside. Instantly they enfolded her, obscuring her from view.

"KAGOME!!" Inuyasha cried.

"KAGOME-_SAMA_!" Miroku echoed him, alarmed.

**

* * *

**

Though neither Inuyasha nor Miroku could see it, Kagome stood not three feet beyond the barrier. The spirits rushed around her body like a tornado. She trembled at their icy touch, embracing herself, but after a moment she forced herself to remember why she was doing this. Slowly she unfolded her arms and reached out with them.

'_I come from a line of priests,_' Kagome thought desperately. '_I have the blood of a great miko in my veins. If I can lay these souls to rest. . ._'

But her prayers were lost to the clamor of souls. The demons passed through her like water through a sieve, and her body quickly went numb. She felt herself falling.

And then strong arms cut through the freezing darkness to enfold her. She collapsed into them, drawn into that place of warmth and safety against him.

"Inuyasha," she murmured.

"_BAKA_!" he hollered into her ear, temporarily drowning out the shrieking spirits. "What the HELL did you think you would do?"

One of his arms crushed her against him. The other held Tetsusaiga. Kagome could see it blazing now, shining through the hurricane of souls. And she saw them draw back from the sword, as if they feared it.

"Tetsusaiga is---" she began, but Inuyasha pulled her roughly back through the barrier, to safety.

"Inuyasha," Kagome tried again, once they were inside, but Inuyasha let go of her and she sank to her knees.

"There'll be no more of _that_," he commanded, glowering down at her.

"_Tetsusaiga_---" Kagome insisted, but broke off, shuddering. The demon's chill remained with her.

"These aren't restless souls like Mayu was," Inuyasha told her sternly, referring to the poltergeist child that she had once calmed and saved from hell. "Believe me, they _want_ to pass on, but the Wise won't _let_ them."

"I know now," Kagome replied, nodding. "I felt it from them. And I don't think I can do anything _for_ them."

Inuyasha's expression softened.

"They should be free," he said. "The Wise shouldn't hold them back."

Again Kagome nodded solemnly.

The moment was broken by Miroku's frantic warning.

"I can't hold the warding much longer!" he groaned. The great effort of holding the demons at bay had dropped him to his knees in the dirt.

The barrier's light began to dim.

With growing urgency, Inuyasha cast about him for some way out of this.

"We need some way to get the Wise to draw off the attack," Miroku said. The first of the _oufuda_ fell from the barrier's surface, fluttering gently to the ground.

"Kagome," Inuyasha said suddenly, doing an abrupt about-face. "Can you see the jewel shards through all those?" He waved a hand toward the demons swirling around them.

Kagome frowned and went silent for a moment, and then her eyes widened in surprise.

"I _can_," she exclaimed. "The light they give off is still visible."

Inuyasha nodded, and without further ado turned and disappeared through the barrier's sphere of protection. His form was obscured by the twisted, seething gale of souls.

"INUYASHA!" Kagome screamed. "COME BACK! DON'T LEAVE ME!"

"INUYASHA!" Miroku cried.

For what seemed an eternity they watched the place where he had disappeared. Behind them, another _oufuda_ fell, unnoticed. Then they saw Inuyasha returning, his body outlined in the blazing light of Tetsusaiga's kenatsu. He walked slowly but steadily, and after a moment he appeared through the barrier. He sank to one knee, breathing hard and using the sword to prop himself up.

In the other hand, he carried a bow and a quiver with three arrows in it.

Kagome just stared at him, agape with relief, anger, and surprise.

"You want me to try to shoot Naraku?" she asked, once she had found her voice again. "Even though all I can see are the shards themselves?"

"It's the best hope we have," Inuyasha answered wearily. Kagome didn't like his weariness. He had been exposed to the demon souls far more than she had, and it was a testament to his strength that he was still breathing.

"He's right," Miroku told her. His voice sounded very strained, as if he were trying to hold up a very heavy weight. "What other choice do we have? My strength is almost gone, and Inuyasha seems to be the only one of us who's somewhat immune to the spirits' killing cold."

Inuyasha held up the bow and Kagome took it from him. With the other she grasped an arrow from the quiver. But when she tried to notch it, pain flared in her broken right arm.

"I can't do this," she told him.

To her right, another _oufuda_ fluttered earthward, and the barrier dimmed further. The air within the hemisphere was becoming very cold---all of them could see their breath in it.

"_Do_ it, Kagome-_sama_," Miroku warned. Sweat streamed down the sides of his face. "Before the warding fails!"

Gritting her teeth and squeezing her eyes shut, Kagome swung her arm upward and notched the arrow. The maneuver was clumsily done, but had been enacted with enough force so that the arrow did not slip from its position of readiness. Tears streamed from the corners of her eyes; the pain was terrible. It shot from her elbow to her shoulder, and also to her fingertips.

"Have to hit," Kagome whispered fiercely.

She tried to draw back the arrow, but her hand lost its grip, crippled by the fire shooting through her nerves. The arrow did not fall, but the shaft tilted downward, no longer aimed toward the shards, which she could still see even with her eyes shut.

But then, once more, he stood behind her.

"Inuyasha," Kagome murmured. She had not thought he had the strength to stand.

Yet now with one hand he lifted the afflicted arm, holding it steady so that she could notch the arrow properly. Inuyasha's other arm stole beneath her other arm and held it fast to the bow, so that her left hand would not shake the bow and spoil her aim.

Kagome straightened her back and steadied herself against him. Then she shot the arrow forth.

**

* * *

**

Beneath the awesome weight of the Inu Youkai soul, Sesshoumaru fought for breath. His vision grew dark as one of the demon's fangs impaled him further, pinning him to the ground. The Wise were approaching. He could smell them---he had never encountered any other mortal with the scent of stone tombs and of old, dusty crypts.

Thoughts flowed through his head disconnectedly. He was a young man, standing alone upon a battlefield strewn with corpses beneath a moon like a cruel, staring eye. He was a full-grown demon, crushed beneath the claws of a dead kinsman. He was young again, wandering hills blanketed with snow, his mind given over to the freedom of his demonic form.

Then, forcibly, he returned his mind to the present.

'_The demon is solid_,' he thought to himself. '_It is real. It pierces my flesh. . .can I not also pierce the flesh of the demon?'_

A deep and abiding ache stirred in his gut---completely independent of the demon's fang.

"Forgive me," he whispered to the one above him. Then he called upon the poison in his claws and rammed them upward into the belly of the beast.

**

* * *

**

Naraku, who had been watching the light of the monk's warding waning beneath the cloud of demon souls, turned abruptly as the Inu Youkai attacking Sesshoumaru let out a howl of rage. It reared its massive head skyward, tearing the fang free of the one below it. Its paw lifted from him also, but this was in preparation for a killing blow.

And then, to Naraku's immense surprise, he felt a sudden burning pain in his side. The arrow had fallen short of its mark---the shards thrust into the flesh of his chest---yet it had done its work.

The Wise directly in front of him, who had formed a protective screen for him, had been killed. The arrow had passed through those in its path---had it not it might well have pierced Naraku's heart.

The sorcerers around him, turned to glance at him in utter shock.

"Send MORE demons to attack Inuyasha," he hissed them, gritting his teeth. "They aren't dying FAST enough!"

But the voices of the Wise fell silent.

A gust of wind blew Naraku's hair across his face.

His black hair.

The sorcerer nearest him, the one who had remained at his side for all this time, raised a hand to Naraku's face.

"You. . .are not Reikotsu," he said softly.

Naraku recovered himself and smiled slyly.

"No," he answered. "But I have what I've come for. And you will destroy the Inu Youkai brothers, and the girl, and the monk, whether you do it to serve _your_ interests or _mine_."

"How powerful you are," the sorcerer whispered, withdrawing his hand from Naraku's cheek.

Naraku's smile vanished.

"You have exhausted your supply of souls upon the enemies below," he said, lip curling with scorn. "You dare not challenge me with the remnant."

The sorcerer backed away from Naraku, wearing an expression as chilling as the spirits' touch.

"In your ignorance," he said, "you have thought the Temple was our only source of power? Had you learned more of us, you would know. . ."

The ranks of the Wise began to chant once more, and suddenly the sky glowed green.

"I am called Honechi," he told Naraku, with a slight, mocking bow. "Allow me to bid you proper welcome. . .to Reiyama, the City of Ghosts."

**

* * *

**

As the last _oufuda_ fell, and the barrier collapsed with it, Inuyasha grabbed Kagome with one arm and the bow and quiver with the other. He and Miroku ran directly through the midst of the demon cloud. The souls seemed to fall back from Tetsusaiga's _kenatsu,_ and with it Inuyasha was able to hold them at bay until he and his friends had reached an opening. The demons, of course, came howling after.

Yet even as Inuyasha embraced Kagome to shelter her from what he believed to be the last assault he would survive, the demons flowed past. He looked up, and saw to his immense relief that they had moved on to a much livelier enemy.

Ahead of him, Naraku was battling the Wise---living _and_ dead---in his true form: the roiling, ever-shifting mass of flesh, from which limbs protruded as scythe-like blades. Brutally, he fought his way free of the sorcerers' midst, and with a rapid hurtling motion flung himself toward the place where Sesshoumaru had just thrown off the Inu Youkai's ghost.

"He's going to take Sesshoumaru's shard!" Kagome cried. "He knows he can't win, so he's going for the last of the shards and then he'll escape!"

A great multitude of spirits now brightened the horizon. Kagome's heart sank at the sight of them. But Inuyasha grinned and said, "Feh. Not if I can help it!"

He sprinted away at breakneck speed, moving to intercept Naraku.

The Saimyoushou, Naraku's poisoned insects, had long since fallen prey to the demon spirits, and the air was clear. Miroku turned toward the Wise and called out in a strident voice: "Call off the souls, or I shall use my Wind Tunnel to hurl you into the void!"

Honechi stepped forward.

"You won't use your hand, Honorable Monk," he said calmly. "Because you will condemn the Inu Youkai souls to the void as well. You seem to be a good man. The spirits spared you once." Honechi raised his hand skyward, the strange green light making a stone mask of his hard, chiseled features. "Take the girl and leave, and we will spare you. Our quarrel is only with the white brothers."

Miroku began to raise his staff. Honechi's gaze flickered.

"You cannot hope to give the souls release," he warned. "That is something that only the Wise can do, and it must be done willingly."

Miroku placed a firm hand on Kagome's shoulder.

"NO!" she cried, trying to shake him off. "WE'RE NOT LEAVING HIM HERE! WE'RE NOT LEAVING HIM!"

"Leave now and live," Honechi continued inexorably. "Accept it. The Inu Youkai Line is about to be broken beyond all repair, that our city might live. . ."

**END OF CHAPTER 10**

_Reader: Oo_

_Yamisui: mooWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!_


	11. Judgment Passed

**# # # THE BEARERS OF THE SHARDS # # #**

**# # Chapter 11: Judgment Passed # #**

**Flashback: One Month Earlier**

_Upon the highest mountain overlooking the Tatesei Valley, a man trudged up the slope. The chill in the autumn air was fierce and biting; the wind harsh and unforgiving. It snapped the man's dark trousers and sleeves against his limbs. It whipped his long black hair about his face, though he had bound part of his hair back to prevent this. _

_The night was freezing and the wailing wind lonely, but the man smiled._

_As he crested the slope, he saw what he had come to find: the white demon standing there, staring down at the city._

"_You can't stay away, can you," he asked the demon softly. _

_The Inu Youkai did not turn around. The wind blew his hair about his face, and stirred his clothing, but he did move._

"_It draws you, doesn't it. . .?"_

_Still the white demon did not move, but the man approaching him sensed his anger. _

"_Lord Sesshoumaru," he murmured, moving to stand at the Inu Youkai's side. _

_Sesshoumaru turned his head ever so slightly, so that one eye glared balefully at the one beside him._

"_Have you come to mock me?" he asked. "Naraku?"_

_Naraku lowered his head, smiling as he gazed down upon the valley below. _

"_The fields are green," he commented, "and the city prospers."_

_Sesshoumaru glanced away from him again, dismissively. _

"_Enough, golem. Explain to me why I should not kill you where you stand." He lowered his gaze to rest upon the city once more, and his eyes narrowed. "Perhaps I shall kill you anyway."_

"_I am HERE, Lord Sesshoumaru," Naraku told him, still smiling. "Here beside you, in the flesh. This is no golem, but my own true form."_

_This achieved no reaction from Sesshoumaru, who continued to watch the valley._

"_I have come to you thus as a matter of trust, to make you an offer," Naraku informed him. "And I have brought you a gift."_

_He held up one hand. Resting upon his palm was a shard of the Shikon Jewel._

"_Heh," Sesshoumaru said without looking at it. "I hold no esteem for the offers you make. Did you not lend me an arm before? Knowing that it would not last?"_

_The wind blew Sesshoumaru's hair across his face. He pushed it aside with the fingers of his right hand. The ghost of his left arm still remained, so that sometimes he could almost imagine the fingers of his left hand performing this gesture. _

"_I recall quite well," Naraku murmured, glancing sideways at him, "that you took it of your own accord. Your hatred for Inuyasha is equal only to mine. Yet it seems to me. . .THIS hatred runs deeper. . .?"_

_Naraku gestured toward the city below with long, fluid fingers._

"_Do not speak of what you do not understand," Sesshoumaru warned him, tight-lipped and narrow-eyed._

"_I understand that you dream of vengeance," Naraku continued, inexorably. "I have walked among your enemies, Lord Sesshoumaru. I know their secrets."_

_Sesshoumaru half turned to glare at the man beside him._

"_How was it that you penetrated the Tatesei defenses?" he demanded. "The wardings in the mountains? Only humans may pass those."_

_Naraku smiled and answered, almost apologetically, "I took possession of a human body."_

_Sesshoumaru's lip curled in disgust, but he seemed willing to listen._

"_The king's heir comes of age," Naraku went on. "Soon he will be ordained the new ruler. But this boy is not the king's eldest son. The eldest Tatesei prince is exiled."_

"_What do I care?" Sesshoumaru asked flatly. "Why is one Tatesei prince any different from the others?"_

"_From the Wise I learned that this one had dabbled in forbidden sorcery," Naraku answered. "Now his body is possessed by a demon's during the day, and he is only human when night falls. But this prince is full of greed and jealousy, or so they say. He was fascinated with sorcery; his own father called him a 'creature of the Wise.' Power was the string with which the Wise planned to control their royal puppet once he ascended the throne. But he was too rash for his own good. Now he wanders the lands of the North, brutal and mindless by day, filled with rage and fear by night."_

"_How do you know that this accursed prince is still alive?" Sesshoumaru asked suspiciously. "And why should I care about his plight? Why can YOU not just pass through the wardings as a human and then destroy them for me, that I too might pass?"_

_Naraku lowered his head, smiling._

"_I know that he's alive because I have seen this prince for myself," he answered. "This wretched boy, cursed to bear the form of those Youkai that he so detests. . . And alas: I cannot help you through the warding. I may pass through using a human body, but only one who knows the arts of the Wise may release the souls that guard the mountains. Only a Tatesei sorcerer may destroy the wardings that bar you from your revenge."_

_The wind wailed through the valley below._

"_And what is your part in this?" Sesshoumaru demanded. "What does Naraku gain from this?"_

"_I?" Naraku murmured. He held out the shard, and the Inu Youkai took it from him. "I ask only that you find a way to lure Inuyasha to Reiyama. I desire the shards that he carries. And then I wish him to die---either by your hands or by the hands of the Wise."_

_Sesshoumaru nodded and was silent for a time, watching the wind rustling through the trees in the valley._

"_Why is it that you hate Inuyasha?" he asked after several moments had passed._

_Naraku shrugged._

"_Why is it that YOU hate him?" he asked casually, then answered his own question: "Because he was chosen, and you were not."_

_Sesshoumaru's ire was instant and white-hot. He struck out to the side with his claws. Naraku's head fell from his body, and then Naraku was not there at all. On the ground where he had stood, there was only a small wooden figure. Sesshoumaru did not bother looking at it; he had known that Naraku was lying, and that he had really only sent a golem. He knew that it was folly to trust Naraku._

'_And yet,' he thought, enclosing the jewel shard in a fist, 'he is most useful as well.'_

_Borne on the wind, Naraku's voice echoed through the air around him._

"_Find the Tatesei prince Yaburenumaru, Lord Sesshoumaru. You have waited too long for justice. It is time to set vengeance into motion."_

_Then Naraku's presence was gone, and Sesshoumaru stood alone once more. _

**

* * *

**

**The Present**

Writhing, twisted, and enraged, Naraku flowed toward the Inu Youkai that had crushed Sesshoumaru. The trap that he had laid so carefully, the trap that he had set for Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru and the girl and the monk. . .all had failed. He had gone to all the trouble of verifying that the Tatesei were indeed a force capable of destroying the Inu Youkai brothers.

Well, now he had firsthand verification.

And he, Naraku, was afraid.

He had made a grievous underestimation of the Tatesei sorcerers: he had not anticipated the sheer _numbers_ of spirits at their command. If he did not take what he desired and escape quickly with it, the Wise might well defeat him and take _his_ soul. Though this body was a golem's, his soul was still inside it. The soul would ordinarily fly back to his own body if the golem was destroyed, but the Wise possessed the power to bind any soul to some physical remnant. He resolved to make this a fast exit.

Naraku could not see Sesshoumaru beneath the massive Youkai that crushed him against the earth, but he could sense the shard there. And the shard was what he wanted. The Wise were beginning to converge toward the same direction as well, clearly with the same intentions.

Acting quickly, Naraku raised himself from the mass of flesh, one arm forming a long scythe. With it he cut a deep slash into the Inu Youkai's heaving side.

The beast, however, did not seem to feel any pain, despite its apparent solidity. The scythe passed through it with no seeming effect.

'What?!' Naraku thought, alarmed. 'Though I cut it, it doesn't even turn toward me. . .'

"DIE, ASSHOLE!"

Naraku turned quickly, just in time to see Tetsusaiga sweeping down toward him in a deadly arc. He dodged it just in time, his entire mass flowing swiftly to the side. Instead of striking its intended target, the sword's _kenatsu_ struck the Inu Youkai instead.

Time seemed to speed up. The Inu Youkai reared upward, opening wide its slavering maw to bellow in pain and rage. Naraku scarcely had time to register the fact that Tetsusaiga's blow had had an actual effect, because the next thing he saw was the gleam of the shard falling from its gaping jaws. Instinctively, he swooped down to take it before the Inu Youkai spirit recovered itself. The logical part of his psyche---the demon whose first concern was survival---warned him of the danger. '_Why does the DEAD ONE have the shard?_' it asked. '_What of the other. . .?_' However, fueled by Onigumo's greed, Naraku reacted too late.

As his hand closed around the shard, he felt the laceration tear through him. Even as his body absorbed the shard the slash sliced a red line through him from throat to navel.

"What---?!" he gasped, raising himself to see the one who had just dealt the blow.

Sesshoumaru stood before him, shaking ichor-like blood from his hand.

"Naraku," the white demon said softly. "Did I not tell you. . .that I do not need the shard to defeat you?"

As the golem's body began to dissolve, and Naraku's consciousness with it, he thought he saw Sesshoumaru smile.

**

* * *

**

When Naraku had gone, only a small wooden figure remained. The Wise swooped down upon it with predatory swiftness, but before they reached it Tetsusaiga descended upon it and clove it in two.

"And YOU'RE next," Inuyasha told the sorcerers, who backed off in a hurry. Sesshoumaru backed away as well, waiting to see what Inuyasha would do, or perhaps wary of Tetsusaiga. Near the broken golem lay Kagome's Shikon shards, which Inuyasha promptly snatched up and slung around his neck, pocketing the one that had come from Sesshoumaru's body with evident distaste.

Upon the Temple stair, the sorcerer Honechi watched this with great misgivings.

"It is that SWORD!" he called to his fellows. There was a new note of urgency in his voice that belied a turning of the tides. "It repels the souls!"

Miroku, who stood near the stair beside Kagome, took hold of her shoulder with one hand and pointed with the other.

"Look, Kagome-_sama_!" he exclaimed. "He's right!"

The Inu Youkai that had been attacking Sesshoumaru continued to retreat from Tetsusaiga, which seemed to blaze even brighter than usual. From the beast's side where it had been struck there poured forth a greenish light that flowed like blood. However, just as it reached the earth it vanished into thin air.

"But why Tetsusaiga?" Kagome asked, clenching Miroku's arm worriedly. She didn't like the way the attention of the Wise now seemed to be focused entirely on Inuyasha. "Why does a _sword_ work against the dead when nothing else does?"

"I don't know," Miroku answered, frowning. "I think the spirits spared me once because I expressed compassion toward their plight. And my spiritual powers seem to have _some_ effect against them. But a _sword_. . ."

"But Tetsusaiga is special," Kagome reminded him. "Even though Inuyasha's a_ hanyou_ he's still the only one who can wield it. . ."

Honechi glanced down at Kagome and Miroku, distracted by what Kagome had said.

"This. . .Inuyasha. . .is a _hanyou_?" he murmured softly. Then, to his comrades, he ordered, "Command the souls to attack these two humans! They are his weakness!"

"Come _on_!" Miroku urged, gripping Kagome's shoulders and propelling her alongside him toward Inuyasha.

The souls moved swiftly, swarming at them from all directions, but Inuyasha was faster, coming instantly to his friends' aid. He swept Tetsusaiga in a series of arcs so quick that it became a blur of light. Kagome and Miroku threw themselves on the ground, crouching at his feet to avoid the swinging blade.

Inuyasha was aware that he was defending them, but there was also a very strange feeling came over him. Even as he swung the sword, a convulsive shudder passed through his body. He felt himself grow cold all over, as if an icy fang had slid into his spine. His hands still gripped Tetsusaiga, and his arms still swung it, but this new awareness was something else entirely.

It felt as if the ghost had risen up through Inuyasha from the very ground beneath him. He had not seen it coming, nor sensed it, but in that moment his field of vision was swallowed in a brilliant flash of green. It was all around him.

Inuyasha remembered disconnectedly that Miroku and Kagome were still kneeling beside him, and his heart clenched with fear for them. He lashed out with Tetsusaiga in desperation, striving with all his might to drive the ghost from him, but for once the sword had no effect. The thing was too immense, and while inside it he could do nothing.

Time seemed to slow and stretch. Inuyasha's vision shifted and blurred. He became like one great eye, seeing every Youkai soul that closed in on him---only now his perception of those souls had changed. His gaze spanned the multitude of faces---sad and hateful, tormented and bitter---and it seemed that he knew them in a way that he had not known them before. Inuyasha did not understand what was happening, and so could not have put it to words. Yet even if he'd wanted to, he couldn't have. His tongue would not respond to his brain.

He thought that he might have spoken to the spirits, but he couldn't be sure. His gaze swept over them, and as it did they began to fade.

As they faded they floated back into the Temple, into the buildings of the city, as if flowing on a tide of air.

Gradually, as the spirits retreated, the green light of the ghost faded, and Inuyasha's perception of the world returned to normal.

The first things that he heard were the angry and fearful exclamations among the Wise, who were apparently as baffled as he was. Then he heard Kagome's voice calling his name as she tugged on his sleeve. She seemed a bit nervous; dimly Inuyasha supposed that he cut a pretty impressive figure standing there with Tetsusaiga ablaze, having just thrown off the attacking ghosts. The third thing he heard was Miroku, already on his feet and rattling off a variety of possible explanations for what had just happened. Inuyasha still felt too oddly to bother with the monk's prattle, so he ignored it.

The first thing that Inuyasha saw was the last of the spirits' light fading into the city. He felt that the worst was over now, though he didn't know _how_ he knew this. Somehow he had driven them back into wherever it was they were bound to, and the Wise---who were still chanting in a rather pathetically determined manner---seemed powerless to reverse this. The second thing that Inuyasha saw was Kagome's worried face, and Miroku's pensive expression. The monk had planted his staff in the dirt and was leaning on it rather heavily, as if he were very tired.

Humans, Inuyasha recalled, were weak and wimpy creatures. Next Miroku was probably going to insist that he needed _sleep_. . .

The third thing that he saw was Sesshoumaru standing there, watching him with a regard as icy as the spirits' touch. The Inu Youkai was covered in blood---much of it his own---and purple slime. His hair was matted with it. But Sesshoumaru glared at his brother unflinchingly, and his steady stance made it clear that he wasn't going to die any time soon. Inuyasha supposed it had been too much to hope for.

"Inuyasha," Kagome murmured, resting her good hand on his arm. "What happened?"

"What spirit was _that_?" Miroku asked in hushed tones. "Why did it come to _our_ aid?"

"How the HELL should I know?!" Inuyasha responded, gesturing widely and throwing up his hands. Kagome and Miroku had to duck, as one hand still held Tetsusaiga.

Standing among the Wise---who had finally gone silent---Honechi stared, aghast.

"How can this _be_?" he murmured. "We cannot destroy him?" He cast a long, solemn glance at each of the remaining sorcerers clustered around him. "Then this," he said to them, "is the end of all things. . ."

Wordlessly he moved out from their midst and walked slowly toward those he had been trying to kill. He met Inuyasha's gaze with a long, grim stare.

"Stop that," Inuyasha demanded, glaring back at him and brandishing Tetsusaiga. "You Wise are SO fucking _weird_."

Then, to everyone's surprise, Honechi knelt before him, bowing his head.

"Many generations of sorcerers have protected this city," he said. "And none have stood against us and lived. But now. . .I have failed. And if Reiyama is to die, then I beg you: strike the first blow to give me death, so that I must not live with this dishonor."

"What?!" Inuyasha was completely nonplussed. "You're giving UP?"

"It would seem so," Miroku murmured, coming to stand beside the hanyou and wearing an expression of equal perplexity.

Cautiously, Kagome joined them, still eyeing the kneeling sorcerer warily.

"It might be a trick," she warned. "He might want us to kill him for a _reason_. The Wise enslave their own dead, remember?"

Inuyasha paused, gazing at his solemn reflection in Tetsusaiga's blade and considering this. Honechi did not move.

"But my sword protects me," Inuyasha responded after a moment, frowning. "The dead can't hurt me or those I'm protecting." Slowly, he lowered Tetsusaiga.

A new idea was occurring to him. Up until this moment he had been fighting to protect his friends, and to prevent his enemies from getting their hands on the Shikon shards. But now the enemy was defeated and surrendering to him, and he didn't have to worry any more. And in this moment, with his thoughts in perfect clarity, Inuyasha understood just how much he wanted to kill them all. It was not rage that made him decide this, nor bitterness, but only a vague sense that some justice had to be done here. The sorcerers were evil; their magic was twisted and cruel. Why should they live?

Inuyasha clenched his hand tightly around Tetsusaiga's hilt and began to raise it. Why shouldn't he? They deserved to die. And he could start with the bastard kneeling in front of him, whose head bowed in acceptance.

Behind him, Sesshoumaru made a noise of disgust.

"They're toying with us," the white demon observed. "They know you can't be killed, but they also know that unless we spare them the Inu Youkai souls will never be free."

Kagome startled and pressed closer to Inuyasha---she had forgotten that Sesshoumaru was still here, and now he had moved closer to Inuyasha's group. She preferred that there be a good fifty feet between herself and Inuyasha's brother---or a good fifty miles.

"How are we supposed to get them to _free_ the souls?" Inuyasha demanded without turning around. "I've got to show them I mean business before I get around to _making_ them do anything. . ."

"Apparently you're deaf as well as stupid," Sesshoumaru replied coolly. "The magic must be done willingly. You can't _force_ them to do this."

"'STUPID'?!" Inuyasha bellowed, glaring back over his shoulder. "I'M not the one who got the bright idea of shoving a SHARD up my ass and going on a rampage through the city!"

Sesshoumaru's haughty expression went temporarily blank, and he appeared slightly taken aback.

"Um. . .Inuyasha?" Kagome murmured, tugging on his sleeve.

"_What_?" he demanded.

"I lied when I said the shard was---er---you know," she replied.

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed, but for the moment neither of them noticed.

"Really?" Inuyasha asked, pulling a face and lowering Tetsusaiga. "Why?"

"I didn't want you to fight him," Kagome said simply. "You would've been distracted from the _real_ danger and the Wise might've defeated you."

"So where was the shard?" Inuyasha asked, still somewhat befuddled.

"In his arm," she answered.

"I see," Miroku murmured, rubbing his chin pensively. Up until this point, he had been listening with an expression of faint amusement. "But he removed the shard and thrust it into the mouth of the Inu Youkai attacking him. Then, when Naraku went after it, lured by his ability to sense its nearness, Sesshoumaru caught him attacked him. Naraku probably thought he was dead by then, so he was caught completely off guard."

Sesshoumaru's scowl deepened.

"What I still don't get," Inuyasha remarked, "is why that one Youkai spirit rose up around me like that and drove the others off."

Honechi looked up, apparently curious about this as well.

"But it wasn't a ghost," Miroku corrected him. "It was more like. . .an echo."

Inuyasha scratched his head, frowning.

"Felt like a ghost to _me_," he mused. "But then, it also felt like it was kind of. . .speaking through me, I guess. Like it was using my body for something."

"I knew that voice," Sesshoumaru said, unexpectedly. His own voice was very bitter. "It was our father's."

Inuyasha, Kagome and Miroku stared at him incredulously. Honechi's eyes narrowed.

"It was an echo of our father's spirit," Sesshoumaru continued, "summoned by the near presence of the Inu Youkai souls. It was preserved, like his Youkai power, in that sword."

The white demon's gaze came to rest upon Tetsusaiga. He took a step toward his brother.

"If you were dead, Inuyasha," he said hungrily, "then perhaps the sword's spirit would choose ME. . ."

"Back off, _baka_---it's MINE!" Inuyasha retorted, but he backed a step away from his advancing brother. This, of all places and times, was the _last_ one he wanted to get in a dogfight over Tetsusaiga.

But abruptly Sesshoumaru swept past Inuyasha, tearing his gaze away from the sword. Instead he came to stand before Honechi.

"Release the souls," he ordered, voice low with hatred. "I won't kill _you_, but I _will_ batter Reiyama into dust. . .if you won't release them."

Honechi's eyes filled with a fire to equal Sesshoumaru's.

"They are the lifeblood of this city," he hissed. "They serve and protect its people."

"They're _dead_, you sick bastard, and they should be _free_," Inuyasha retorted, moving to stand at Sesshoumaru's shoulder. "What do we have to do to convince you Wise to let them go?"

Sesshoumaru shrugged faintly.

"It does not matter," he said, and his tone was calm. "If you will never free my kin anyway, then killing the Tatesei sorcerers is going to ease my heart greatly." His eyes flickered down toward Honechi. "But _you_ I will kill last, so that you can watch your brethren die." He lowered his voice to a toxic whisper. "And I swear to you on my father's grave that it will be _slow_."

Honechi swallowed hard, squaring his shoulders. There was a moment of pregnant silence during which it seemed the sorcerer might still dare to defy Sesshoumaru.

Yet finally he answered, "With Reikotsu dead, I am the new leader of the Wise. I speak for my brethren in saying that we promise to do as you ask. Pass judgment upon Reiyama as you will. But our magic is tied to the will of the king. We may only release the souls if the ruler orders it."

"Iryokugou-_o-sama _is dead," Sesshoumaru told him icily. "I have passed my judgment upon him."

"Ah," Honechi said softly. "Yet two princes remain. . ."

**END OF CHAPTER 11**


	12. The True King

**# # # THE BEARERS OF THE SHARDS # # #**

**# # Chapter 12: The True King # #**

In the tunnel beneath the lake, Shippou and Asano ran in darkness. By this time both were drenched with the moisture that dripped from the stone ceiling. Shippou's foxfire had long since died out, because in order to keep up with the human prince the Kitsune was forced to scamper on all fours. From somewhere behind them there came a sudden, resounding thud that echoed deafeningly through the narrow space. Though they had run a long ways, the impact still caused a flurry of small rocks to rain down upon them.

"What's going ON?!" Shippou panted, periodically casting nervous glances over his shoulder.

"I---I don't know!" Asano replied, breathing hard. "It sounds like something's trying to come through the ceiling!"

The sound came again; louder this time.

"The Wise have found us!" Shippou yelped.

"Come on!" Asano scooped the Kitsune up in his arms. "We have to make it to the exit before they break through!"

The sound came again, before they had run three steps.

And then, with a mighty, heaving groan the tunnel gave way.

Water spurted through the breach like blood through a vein. It filled the narrow passageway and tossed Asano and Shippou like rag dolls. The pressure of the water's weight was causing the tunnel to cave in. Cracks and then further decimation of the stone ceiling spread rapidly from the breach, but the massive, surging tide carried both of them through the tunnel. Ahead of him, through the murky water, Shippou could see a blurry square of light growing larger. Then, abruptly, he and Asano burst free of the tunnel's exit.

The force of the flood bore them upward and onto the rocky banks of the lake. Behind and below them, the tunnel's entire structure finally gave way with a deafening roar, and the level of the lake ebbed slightly as the water quickly filled it. Shippou lay there in a daze, bedraggled and soaked and blinded the brightness of daylight after the long stint in the dark underground.

Then a shadow moved across the sun, and he could see again.

Shippou raised his head, blinking muddy water out of his eyes. Somewhere behind him, he heard Asano gasp and exclaim: "That's---!"

But whatever the prince intended to say, he never finished it, because the shadow loomed down and struck him with its claws.

**

* * *

**

"Asano!" Kagome gasped, realizing what Honechi was saying. "What's happened to Asano and Shippou?!"

"Fuck!" Inuyasha exclaimed, brandishing Tetsusaiga and making those nearest him duck again. "I forgot about them! Didn't Miroku tell them to go hide somewhere?"

"Asano," Sesshoumaru murmured, more to himself than anyone else. "The prince. . ."

"Inuyasha, why hasn't Yaburenumaru shown himself before now?" Miroku asked. "Unless. . ."

"Damnit," Inuyasha swore again, sheathing Tetsusaiga and making ready to be off. "That little bastard's _more_ trouble. . ."

"Inuyasha, he didn't come to fight _us_," Kagome reminded him worriedly. "He came here to kill his brother."

"We have to find them!" Miroku urged them. "Kagome-_sama_, can you locate the _kehai_ of Yaburenumaru's jewel shard?"

Kagome nodded solemnly and Inuyasha knelt so that she could climb onto his back. Then he sprang forward and they were off, in the direction that she indicated. Miroku, left alone in the company of Sesshoumaru and the Wise and a whole lot of half-melted corpses, took off after them with great haste.

The Wise watched him go with great misgivings.

"What must we do?" one asked. "What _can_ we do?"

"These outsiders will choose our king for us if we don't act!" another argued heatedly, clenching his fist so violently that his long gray sleeve fell back below his forearm. "They will kill Yaburenumaru to save the younger one, and all our efforts will have come to nothing."

All eyes turned to Honechi, who had risen from where he knelt before Inuyasha and glided over to stand among them.

"We can't hope to defeat Inuyasha," he told them gravely. "We have already tried to defeat the prophecy and failed. He wields a power heirloom whose magic contains a part of the Great Demon's soul. This mere hanyou can force our legions to retreat; even if we called them back what good would it do?"

"You are all fools," a smooth voice interrupted their discussion. "Listening to some old man's inane babble and thinking a mere hanyou has come to destroy you."

A hush fell over the sorcerers as Sesshoumaru stalked straight through their midst. They parted around him to all him a wide berth.

"The words spoken by our prophet are not to be taken lightly," Honechi warned. His eyes narrowed, and he lowered his head until his face disappeared into the shadow of his cowl. "And you, white demon, take us too lightly for one who would have died beneath our magic. . .had not the _hanyou's_ sword saved you."

Sesshoumaru stopped walking and turned his head ever so slightly. One eye glared balefully down at Honechi.

"You will regret saying that," he told the sorcerer. "Inuyasha is a fool. He came here because I led him here. He is too human to hate you as I do." He paused, turning away again, then said with his back facing them: "I don't care which whelp the _kirin_ ordains. Only know this: if the one chosen will not free the souls of my kin, then I swear I will hunt down every man, woman and child of Tatesei blood until Reiyama truly _is_ a city of ghosts."

Then the white demon stalked clear of the gathered Wise, moving swiftly in the direction that Inuyasha had taken. One of his strides was as long as two mortals', and soon he had vanished from view.

Then the Wise began to move, gray-robed figures seeming to glide over the gore-soaked ground. They followed Sesshoumaru, knowing that he would lead them to Yaburenumaru.

"Unlike Inuyasha, that one cannot be reasoned with," one of the Wise observed. "He is too angry. What is to stop him from slaughtering us all once he has achieved what he wants?"

With seeming indifference the sorcerers passed over the bodies of the murdered Tatesei, as if planting a foot upon a child's face was no different from treading upon a lump of dirt in the road.

"Yes, he is angry," Honechi agreed, "angry enough to act rashly." The leader of the Wise lowered his head, smiling. "Did you not see his face? He wants the _hanyou's_ sword. Why not goad him into taking it? The human girl bearing the Shikon Jewel shards said that only Inuyasha can wield it. If the _hanyou_ and the sword are separated, then. . ."

The other Wise nodded understanding. If Inuyasha and the sword shielding him were parted, then he and his jealous, dangerous brother would see the same doom as their forebears.

**

* * *

**

"STOP IT! Don't you realize what you're DOING?! He's your BROTHER!"

Shippou cried out in terror as the demon's claws raked across Asano's back and right arm. The blow had not struck directly, or the human prince would have been impaled by it. At the last second Asano had thrown himself to one side, and so was only wounded.

But the demon was agile and lightning-quick, and as soon as the strike was pulled its other arm was moving.

"_FOXFIRE_!" Shippou shouted, recovering his wits and aiming his attack at the space between the demon and its prey.

The green fire shot forth from between the Kitsune's cupped palms, enveloping Asano and giving the demon pause. The human prince, terrified by the sudden appearance of the flames around him, crawled backward rapidly. The demon drew back for a moment, but the flames that had been intended to scorch him were instead absorbed into his scaly hide. Yaburenumaru's eyes, so eerily human in the demon's face, narrowed to slits as if in ecstasy. He seemed to be consciously drawing the fire into himself.

"Oh no!" Shippou cried, slapping his forehead with his paws. "I forgot he's a SALAMANDER demon! Salamanders are DRAWN to fire!"

As Asano simultaneously tried to scramble to his feet and dive behind a rock for shelter, Yaburenumaru lowered himself onto all four reptilian feet, lashing his tail. He seemed to convulse, as if he were about to wretch, and then his jaws snapped open and he spat a fireball toward his brother. It was massive---roughly the size of the boulder behind which Asano was hiding---and so hot that it left a scorched furrow through everything in its path.

It would have scorched right through Asano's makeshift barricade had not another barrier imposed itself between the fire and the boy.

The fireball struck Inuyasha dead on. But he held his sleeves in front of his face, and his fire-rat robes shielded him completely. The orb seemed to burst upon contact with him, spattering flames in all directions but nevertheless coming nowhere near Asano.

"_Kyah_!" Kagome screamed as the flames shot toward her. Inuyasha had put her down at what he judged to be a safe distance away once they'd arrived on the scene, but it wasn't far enough for _her_ liking.

"Gah!" Miroku cried, facing the same threat. He lunged for Kagome, grabbed her around the waist, and tackled her to the ground. The flames shot over their heads, less than a meter above.

"Oy! Monk! Keep your hands off her!" Inuyasha yelled, glancing over at them.

"YOU watch where you make the demon's attacks ricochet!" Miroku fired back, raising his head to glare over at the _hanyou_. His arms still encircled Kagome's waist, even though the flames had disappeared.

"Better you than me, yah pervert!" Inuyasha retorted.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome called, clearly incensed by the attack's near miss. "Will you SHUT UP and STOP that thing before it barfs up ANOTHER fireball?"

"Heh," Inuyasha snorted, turning back toward the demon and raising Tetsusaiga. "Consider it done."

The demon, having been given time to re-gather its strength, now spat forth two fireballs in rapid succession. Inuyasha took a swing at the first one with Tetsusaiga, wielding the sword like a player at bat. It flew about a hundred yards away, scorching the tops of the trees at the edge of the lake. Inuyasha didn't see the second one until it was almost upon him.

"Shit!" he swore, dodging it. "Who the FUCK tried using fire against this thing?!"

Shippou, who had been watching all of this in a wide-eyed, dumbstruck manner, now scampered toward Kagome, where Inuyasha was least likely to pound him.

"Feh," Inuyasha grumbled, shooting a glare Shippou's way. "I'll deal with YOU later. . ."

"Say, Kagome-_sama_," Miroku murmured into Kagome's ear. "Do you see where the demon's shard is?"

"HEY, you CAN remove your hands now, you know!" Kagome told him, using both arms and one foot to pry herself from his grasp.

When she had put at least three yards between them she squinted at Yaburenumaru, looking for the shard. She saw the telltale glow located in the demon's back. A sudden memory came to her of when they had first met Yaburenumaru, and there had been a great bloody weal across his back. Now she knew why. He had torn the shard from his own body that night and hidden it somewhere to prevent her from sensing it and realizing that he was after the jewel. Sesshoumaru had warned him that she had the ability to see the shards, and Sesshoumaru had given Yaburenumaru the means to return to Reiyama, but in the end it had been Yaburenumaru's choice to come. It made Kagome very sad to think that a young boy could have such an ugly heart.

"Inuyasha, it's in his back!" she called, cupping her hands to her mouth. "Just underneath the largest spine!" The salamander demon had a single ridge of razor-sharp spikes growing down along the length of its spine.

Inuyasha nodded understanding and ran at Yaburenumaru. The demon spat another fireball at him, but he took a flying leap and vaulted over it. As he flew through the air, he slashed Tetsusaiga downward in one vicious strike. The blow cut deep beneath the largest spike and into the flesh beneath. The demon howled in fury as a great gout of red-orange blood sprang from the wound. The jewel shard that had been embedded in that flesh became airborne upon the spray of this fount.

"Inuyasha, quick!" Kagome cried, but he had already seen it.

With his Youkai reflexes he snatched it up and bounded over the rest of the demon's body to land on his feet on the ground below.

"Damnit," he swore, pocketing the shard and hurrying off toward the lake with even greater speed.

Kagome, Shippou and Miroku watched with a good deal of surprise and chagrin.

"He's running away?" Shippou asked, sounding shocked.

Kagome had her doubts, but she was wondering the same thing as well until Inuyasha crouched down and stuck his hand under the water. A small puff of steam escaped the surface just above his hand, and the _hanyou_ let out a sigh of vast relief.

"Damn, that was hot!" he complained. "That thing's blood's like sticking your hand in boiling water."

Kagome, still watching him, thought, '_Well he's certainly had enough experience trying to steal ramen from the pot to know. . _.'

The demon, its opponent temporarily distracted, was headed for Asano again. It reared up on its hind legs and came down upon the boulder that he was hiding behind. Broken chunks of rock flew in all directions. Asano gave a hoarse yell and flattened himself against the ground, attempting to shield his head and neck with his hands.

"Yaburenumaru!" he cried, in a voice both fearful and anguished. "Brother!"

The demon's jaws descended toward him, glowing with the heat of the fire building within them. Then Inuyasha's red-clad form imposed itself between the two brothers.

"Oh no you DON'T!" he shouted, swinging Tetsusaiga.

The blade's _kenatsu_ sent energy crackling along the flesh of the demon's face, and it retreated, roaring and shaking its head as if to clear it. Some of its blood spattered on the ground again, causing the grass to sizzle where it landed. Then it was lunging for Asano again, this time on all fours and spewing fire. Again Inuyasha imposed himself between the demon and its prey, and this time the fireball broke and scattered before even touching Tetsusaiga because the_ kenatsu_ was growing in strength.

As the demon recoiled from the crackling field of energy, Miroku hastened to Inuyasha's side and stepped in front of him.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Inuyasha hollered, swatting at the monk with his sword. "Get the fuck outta my way!"

Miroku stepped forward more to avoid being swatted and planted his staff firmly in the sodden earth.

"Let me help," he insisted, facing down the demon with an expression of determination. "Perhaps I can defeat him without spilling more blood."

Miroku placed his hands on either sides of the staff's ring and concentrated his spiritual energy into a locus around the ring. The smaller rings on the staff jangled violently as the staff vibrated. Then the monk uttered a low incantation, and the light building between his hands shot forth and struck the demon between the eyes.

"Yaburenumaru!" Miroku said clearly, calling to the boy within the demon. "_Kikan_! _Kikan_!"

Kagome scooted backward to crouch behind a tree stump to watch from a safer vantage point.

''_Kikan_'?' she thought, surprised. ''_Return'? He's exorcising the demon_?'

"_KIKAN_!" the monk repeated, more forcefully.

"Hmm. . ." Shippou mused. "You know, we've never actually SEEN him perform an exorcism. I always thought he was faking it."

From the amount of power Miroku was sending through the air he apparently _wasn't_ faking it, but from the looks of things he wasn't having an easy time of it, either. The demon's outline was becoming blurred and wavered, but it was still advancing toward Asano---albeit slowly and steadily. Miroku's expression was becoming strained. At first Kagome thought it was because he'd already been drained by the long battle with the Wise. But then, abruptly, Miroku aborted the exorcism, catching up his staff in his left hand before retreating behind Inuyasha.

"You done now, dumb-ass?" Inuyasha jeered at him. "NOW can I get on with this?"

"He---he wouldn't let me," Miroku panted. A thin sheen of perspiration had developed across his forehead. "Yaburenumaru is _there_, in the demon's form. But he _refuses_ to let the Youkai spirit be exorcised." Miroku's expression was one of utter dismay. "It's like he's _chosen_ to become one with the demon so that he can control it."

The demon seemed temporarily stunned by the monk's spell, but it was recovering fast.

"Well, I could've told you THAT!" Inuyasha replied, but his expression was grim. "If this is what the kid wants, then we can't make him see reason. If he WANTS to be an evil little runt in a big body then I'm gonna have to kill him."

And then, without further ado, Inuyasha proceeded to raise Tetsusaiga for one final, fatal slash downward. The blade descended toward Yaburenumaru in an arc so swift it blurred.

But something moving just as swiftly stopped Tetsusaiga's deadly descent. The force of the counter-blow knocked it from Inuyasha's grasp and sent it flying. Caught completely by surprise, Inuyasha scarcely dodged the crackling cord of light before it retracted and fell back toward its wielder. Had he not leaped back in time, it would have struck him directly across the face.

"You. . .fool!" Sesshoumaru hissed.

Inuyasha dove after Tetsusaiga, which went somersaulting through the air before landing with a splash in the lake. Sesshoumaru snapped the whip-like weapon at his brother again. Inuyasha was forced to jump off course to avoid it. He landed in a crouched position, glaring at his assailant.

"What the HELL do you think you're DOING?!" he shouted. "That THING isn't the new ruler! It's not even human any more!"

"That," Sesshoumaru replied, "is the point." He remained planted between his brother and the demon, staring down at Inuyasha with a kind of feverish intensity.

"He's---he's _defending_ Yaburenumaru," Kagome exclaimed, surprised. "But _why_?"

"What the hell d'you MEAN; 'That's the point.'?" Inuyasha demanded. He tried another mad dash toward the lake, where the ripples still spread around the place where his sword sank. Once again Sesshoumaru's weapon diverted him from his course. "Why are you doing this? Is this about Tetsusaiga?"

Jealousy flared in the white demon's eyes, but he lowered his head and visibly drove it back.

"Yaburenumaru knows what it is to be Youkai," he answered softly. "He has tasted demon power, and he has chosen to become one with it." He added, "That soft, puling little princeling does not," making scornful reference to Asano.

This seemed to give Yaburenumaru pause. Until this instant he had been moving away from the two Inu Youkai, searching for Asano amidst the debris with his roving, burning gaze. Now he hesitated, turning to look at Sesshoumaru.

"What difference does that make?" Miroku asked, leaving his hiding place to approach them. "You can't choose their king _for_ them. . ."

Sesshoumaru's eyes flashed, and his claws tightened around the end of his weapon.

"Can't I?" he asked, in a low, warning tone of voice.

He sent the whip cracking down on Inuyasha, who rolled to the side to get out of the way. The weapon left a deep furrow in the ground that glowed a poisoned green.

"Stop! He's right!" It was Asano, rising to his feet and stepping out from behind the barricade of debris he'd been using for shelter. "You can't choose which of us will be king. Only the---"

Then the prince saw the murderous gleam in Sesshoumaru's eye, as the white demon turned slowly toward him.

"One cannot be ordained," Sesshoumaru murmured, "if the other is dead."

Moving so fast that his body became a white blur, he launched himself toward Asano, who could only watch in horror his approaching doom. Then Inuyasha was between them, absorbing the impact of Sesshoumaru's momentum and letting it bowl him over. Asano stood stock still, frozen with fear but also unwilling to flee. He watched as the two brothers rolled over and over, scraping a deep gouge into the earth until they finally came to a stop.

They landed with Inuyasha crouching over his brother. Both of them had each other in a strangle hold.

"Will you just GIVE IT UP?!" Inuyasha bellowed. "Ass-holes who want to kill their own brothers don't get ordained!"

"We have to do something!" Kagome exclaimed, watching worriedly. "And QUICK!"

"Not necessarily," Miroku muttered, scratching his head and looking pensive. "They don't exactly seem to be destroying anything at the moment. . .except maybe each other. . ."

For once the two brothers were evenly matched in physical strength. Though Sesshoumaru was full Youkai, his injuries were worse than he let on and he had only one hand with which to strangle his brother. Inuyasha, on the other hand, was relatively fresh and spry, and had two hands with which to throttle the throat between them.

Kagome wasn't reassured by the sight of this, and vowed that she would retrieve Tetsusaiga before things got out of hand. She kicked off her shoes and socks.

"Kagome, WAIT!" Miroku cried. "Have you lost all common SENSE?!"

But she ignored him, took a running start and dove into the lake.

"Kagome, WAIT FOR ME!" Shippou cried, and hurried after her.

Yaburenumaru, in the meantime, had resumed his advance upon Asano. Asano wasn't running any more, but had picked up a sharp, broken branch and was swinging it at his brother.

"Don't come near me!" he cried in desperation. "Don't do this! I don't care what you are now---you're still my BROTHER!"

But Yaburenumaru didn't stop. His advance was slow. He slashed at his brother lazily with his long claws, as a cat might swat at a mouse. The human eyes in the demon's head were calm, and gave no indication that he cared what Asano might say.

"Asano, if you value your life, grab onto that tree stump near you and DON'T LET GO!" Miroku had come to the prince's aid, standing behind the advancing demon and preparing to use his right hand.

Asano froze, not understanding what the monk meant. He had never seen the Wind Tunnel in action.

"Do it NOW!" Miroku ordered. Still the prince didn't move---he was too reluctant to drop the branch he was wielding with Yaburenumaru bearing down on him.

'_Damnit_,' Miroku thought worriedly. '_If he doesn't hold onto something, I can't use the Wind Tunnel or he'll be sucked in, too.'_

Meanwhile, the second pair of siblings trying to kill each other was still at it.

"Fool!" Sesshoumaru rasped at Inuyasha, eyes red with rage. "Just which boy. . .do you think. . .is going to choose. . .to free the Youkai souls? The human. . .or the one who's chosen demonification?"

Inuyasha jabbed a clawed finger in Asano's general direction.

"Shut up and LISTEN! Asano's the only one of that pair with any kind of compassion! The other one's a twisted little freak who's all but sold his SOUL to the Wise!"

Then Inuyasha realized the very stupid error he'd just made.

He'd just lost his one-hand advantage over Sesshoumaru---to POINT at someone, of all things---and now Sesshoumaru was able to break free of his choke-hold. The white demon threw him off with a sudden surge of strength, sending him sprawling. Now Sesshoumaru tackled _Inuyasha_ to the ground and flew at him. He ended up kneeling over Inuyasha with his claws at his brother's throat. The white demon's eyes glittered feverishly, and his breath quickened.

"I see now," he breathed, "that I must first finish _you_. Finish. . .what should have been done all those years ago. . ."

**

* * *

**

Diving down beneath the murky lake water, Kagome forced her self to keep her eyes open. She hoped desperately that with her spiritual powers she'd be able to see Tetsusaiga, even though it had probably reverted to its ordinary, banged-up-looking mode. But after descending about ten feet she couldn't see anything, and swimming with one good arm was difficult. She let herself be buoyed upward and resurfaced, gasping. She almost collided with Shippou, who was dog-paddling around her and calling her name into the water.

"Shippou!" she said, grabbing his shirt collar to hoist him up. "I need your help!"

"O-ok-kay," he sputtered, spitting up lake scum.

"I'm going to dive again to find Tetsusaiga," Kagome explained. "You swim after me and use your foxfire to light things up. It's so dark down there!"

Shippou nodded solemnly. They both took a deep lungful of air, then disappeared below the surface again.

"_Foxfire_," Shippou managed, despite the bubbles escaping from his mouth.

A small green light appeared, cutting through the murky water. Kagome thought she saw something gleaming below her, and kicked her legs with renewed hope. She tried not to think about the pressure in her ears or the burning in her lungs or the fierce throbbing in her arm as she swam. The added weight of her clothes helped; she sank like a stone. Five feet more, and then she thought in exultation, '_I SEE it!_'

It was inches away from her outstretched fingertips. She had the faint impression that it was surrounded by dark, wavy things, but she didn't have time to think about anything but the sword. Inuyasha was in danger, and her own breath was also in danger of running out. She felt the wavy things touch her arm. Impatiently she pushed them aside, reaching further into their midst to grasp the sword hilt.

Then Shippou's light disappeared.

He had resurfaced, the incantation having released too much air for him to go as far as Kagome had.

"Kagome!" he cried, alarmed because when he looked down he couldn't see her at all.

At the bottom of the lake, Kagome panicked. The sword was stuck in the mud below. In desperation she tugged it with both arms---including the broken one---and still it wouldn't budge. But she couldn't let go of the sword, either, or all this would be for nothing. She looked up, thinking that if she could swim down with Shippou then maybe the two of them could pull it out together.

Thinking, however, was becoming difficult. Resigning herself to a second try, Kagome attempted to swim toward the surface. She needed air. It was so dark that she couldn't see what direction to go, so she used her grasp of Tetsusaiga's hilt to pull her feet under her to rest on the lake bottom. However, when Kagome tried to push off of it, she found that she was stuck. The wavy things---apparently lake weeds---had somehow become tangled around her legs. Frantically she thrashed and tried to free herself, but she was losing strength, and with it consciousness.

**

* * *

**

Thinking quickly, Shippou conjured up the foxfire again and plunged down as far as his little legs would take him. It was hard for him to swim with the little green flame cupped between his palms. Soon he was rewarded with the sight of the answering gleam off Tetsusaiga's blade, but also horror-struck at the sight of Kagome, trapped among the weeds. Her eyes were open, but so was her mouth, and there were only a few bubbles trailing from it. Desperately, Shippou transformed into the heaviest thing he could think of: a small Buddha statue. It sank like the rock it resembled, and then he transformed back when he had hit the bottom.

The Kitsune tugged on both Kagome's arm and Tetsusaiga's hilt, but neither would budge. Kagome floated up a little ways, her hair billowing around her face, but something kept tugging her downward, and even unconscious she wouldn't let go of the sword. After a few more unsuccessful attempts Shippou's air ran out, and he floated back up to the surface.

"INUYASHA!" he cried, flailing and splashing in a panic. "You've gotta help Kagome! She's stuck at the bottom of the lake!"

Inuyasha was still pinioned beneath Sesshoumaru, whose claws at his throat had begun to glow green.

"What the hell?!" Inuyasha barked. "What was she THINKING?!"

"She was trying to get Tetsusaiga back!" Shippou answered. "So HELP her, already!"

"Tetsusaiga," Inuyasha murmured, remembering what had befallen the sword. As Sesshoumaru's claws descended toward his neck, he thought, _'I still have the scabbard. If I can call Tetsusaiga with it. . _.'

Sesshoumaru's claws stabbed downward, and Inuyasha whipped his head to the left to avoid being skewered. With one hand, Inuyasha caught his brother's wrist just before Sesshoumaru's rapid counterstrike could reach his face. Holding his brother off required a lot of strength, but the _hanyou_ couldn't spare the use of the other hand, which closed convulsively around the scabbard at his hip. He thanked his lucky stars that it hadn't been torn from him at some point during the battle. As he gripped the scabbard, he felt it send out a pulse.

Sesshoumaru felt the pulse and glanced down to see what was happening. The white demon didn't know that Tetsusaiga could be summoned by its scabbard, but he could sense the power emanating from it. He brought one knee up and stamped down hard on it, attempting to shatter it, but all he succeeded in doing was grinding it into the earth with his weight.

Treading water in the lake, Shippou let out a squawk of surprise as the water around him began to pulse and ripple. But when he looked down and saw a light drawing nearer to the surface of the water.

Then Tetsusaiga broke the surface, dragging Kagome with it.

"KAGOME!" Shippou exclaimed.

When the sword changed direction to zoom over the bank toward Inuyasha, Kagome loosed her death-grip on its hilt and sank back down into the water. Shippou transformed into a round, buoy-like thing and dragged her toward the shore, where he half-pushed, half-rolled her a little ways up the bank.

Tetsusaiga shot toward Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru.

The instant its hilt reached Inuyasha's palm and his fingers closed around it, everything began happening at once.

Wary as he was of Tetsusaiga's power, Sesshoumaru was also determined to kill his brother. His claws stabbed downward again, but Inuyasha rolled to the side and they only raked the earth beside him. Inuyasha slashed at his brother with Tetsusaiga, but Sesshoumaru was up in a flash and jumping back a good five meters. Asano finally listened to Miroku and grabbed hold of the stump, and Miroku flung aside the prayer beads, shouting, "_KAZAANA_!" Yaburenumaru dug tried to dig his claws into the earth, scrabbling desperately for some purchase in the loose, churned-up soil to keep from being sucked in. Inuyasha was caught off guard in mid-leap by Sesshoumaru's whip-like weapon. It coiled around Tetsusaiga's blade and held fast, though Inuyasha tried to wrench the sword away. He landed in a crouch, planting his feet to keep from being thrown completely off balance.

While all this was happening, the air had developed a sudden chill, and the sky became lit with a weird green cast. Both Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru glanced up and saw what was coming. Borne on the backs of a hundred souls, the Wise rolled onto the scene in the midst of their legions, finally coaxed from their retreat once Tetsusaiga was out of range. Miroku closed off the Wind Tunnel once he had noted the presence of the Inu Youkai souls, and Yaburenumaru paused as well to see what the Wise would do.

"Let GO, stupid!" Inuyasha bellowed at Sesshoumaru. "Can't you see them hovering like damned VULTURES? If this sword leaves my hands we're ALL done for!"

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed as he studied the ranks of the Wise, waiting silent and cowled atop the Youkai spirits.

"Let GO of it, before they attack!" Inuyasha urged, pulling on Tetsusaiga's hilt with all his might to keep from being dragged off his feet. "Heirloom or not, the sword's not worth DYING for!"

Slowly, Sesshoumaru turned to face his brother. The red had gone from his eyes, as had the rage. His expression was calm and smooth now, but his eyes were bitter---bitter to a depth that even Inuyasha could scarcely fathom.

"You are wrong," Sesshoumaru said softly. But with a flick of his wrist the coils of the whip loosened and fell away. "Because of your impure blood you can never understand," he murmured. "But while the sword is a worthy cause. . .I have no desire to die in this place."

Astride the back of a great Inu Youkai, hovering over those facing each other on the ground, Honechi watched this exchange with narrowed eyes. If the white demon would not take the sword from Inuyasha, then Reiyama's doom, predicted long ago, would now come to pass.

On the banks of the lake below, Shippou raised himself from where he had lain in the mud, panting with exhaustion. Kagome still lay on her stomach; half submerged, with her arms sprawled over her head, which was turned to the side. Her eyes were slightly open, as was her mouth, but the rising and falling of her back was very faint.

"Kagome!" Shippou gasped, dragging himself closer to her. "Kagome, please be okay!"

He pummeled her shoulder and back with his tiny paws, then tried slapping her face. When she didn't respond, he raised his head to peer over the top of the bank, searching urgently for someone to help.

What he saw was the gray edge of the robes of the man standing above him.

"The_ hanyou_ Inuyasha loves this girl," Honechi murmured, gazing down upon Kagome in a very calculating manner. "She is his weakness." Then he uttered a soft incantation, and a thin red mist appeared between them. It formed a visible connection between Kagome's body and Honechi's outstretched hand.

"Leave her alone, you bastard!" Inuyasha cried, brandishing Tetsusaiga.

Honechi turned and called, "Inuyasha! Lay down the sword and step away from it, or the girl's soul joins the ranks of those you see here."

"Don't do it, Inuyasha!" Miroku yelled. "Kill him now, before he can cast the spell to take her soul!"

"Don't deal with these treacherous mortals," Sesshoumaru warned from beside Inuyasha. "Don't give up Tetsusaiga for the sake of some mortal girl!"

Honechi smiled thinly. "I am the High Priest of Sorcerers, Inuyasha. Think carefully. I already hold her soul in my grasp, and she is near death. I can bind her to Reiyama faster than you could blink, let alone swing that sword."

Inuyasha's face was very grim as he surveyed the red mist and Kagome's lifeless expression.

"You will _do_ this?!" Sesshoumaru whispered, recognizing the look on his brother's face for what it was. "For the sake of your pathetic human sympathies, you would condemn us all to death?! Do you really think the Wise will spare her?"

Inuyasha didn't say a word; his eyes never left Kagome. Honechi's smile deepened.

Then, at this crucial moment, when words were all that was left to sway the course of things, a hush fell over all present. It was not a true silence, but a supernatural stillness. A sudden peace descended upon the hearts of those who stood upon this field of battle, and all turned to see the reason for it.

The white beast moved calmly through their midst. Its delicate cloven hooves scarcely seemed to touch the ground at all; it moved with a grace so unearthly as to be considered floating. Though its gaze upon each individual was wise and penetrating, its eyes were also merciful; round and soft as pearls. Its horn flashed with borrowed radiance, for it still possessed the jewel shard, embedded there.

"It is the _kirin_," Honechi breathed. His face wore an uncharacteristic expression of awe. "The _kirin_, here to ordain the one to rule us."

"The _kirin_," Asano echoed, still clutching the stump so hard that his fingers turned white at the knuckles. "To choose the true king."

Miroku thought to himself, '_If it chooses Asano-sama, then this will end well. Honechi himself said that the power of the Wise is bound to the ruler. . ._'

"It has to choose Asano-_sama_," Shippou whispered. "It HAS to. . ."

Inuyasha and Sesshoumaru stood transfixed, watching the _kirin_ move in silence. Yaburenumaru turned from his brother to face it, human eyes watching it intensely from the grotesque demon's face.

"The _kirin_ always chooses the strongest ruler," Honechi murmured to himself. "It chooses the man who is powerful enough to defend Reiyama from those outsiders who would invade it. Thus has every Tatesei king been chosen."

Among the grim ranks of the Wise, sorcerers murmured to themselves, "It MUST be Yaburenumaru-_sama_."

The _kirin_ passed through the ranks of the Wise, who stood at a respectful distance from it, and also through the legions of souls, which parted like a green tide before it. It walked to the center of the battlefield, where it stood like the calm eye of the storm, luminous eyes taking in all who stood around it. Then, after a long and pregnant silence, it moved forward toward the one it had chosen. As with all _kirin_ of legend, it sank to its front knees and bowed its head so low that the silken mane brushed the churned-up mud. Its long, silver horn angled downward, touching the ground with the tip.

A faint, sweet scent of orange blossoms filled the air, and a shimmering radiance pervaded the space between the white beast and the choice it had made. A silence full of mixed emotions reigned among those who stood around where the _kirin_ knelt.

The ruler had been ordained.

What had been done in this moment would now bind all present to the new lord's fate.

**END OF CHAPTER 12**

_Reader: OO_

_Yamisui: kukuku_


	13. Homebound

_Yamisui: At last, the final chapter! Maybe now I can get some sleep. . ._

**# # # THE BEARERS OF THE SHARDS # # #**

**# # # Chapter 13: Homebound # # #**

As the _kirin_ knelt before him, it seemed to him that all the world melted away, and it was only the two of them together, surrounded by a circle of light. He supposed the beast had cast some kind of spell, and his supposition was confirmed when it spoke to him. The _kirin_ had no human voice, but its speech in his mind was like the pealing of bells; thunder ringing in the heavens. For the briefest of instants he felt small and insignificant, a drop in the ocean---too overcome with wonder to do anything but listen.

But when the _kirin's_ first words fell silent, he became angry.

"_No!"_ he hissed. "_NO!"_

The emotions warring in his heart were almost too much to bear. One hand clenched into a fist at his side, nails digging into flesh so hard that blood ran down his palm. He could speak no further; the blood pounded in his chest and rushed in his ears, threatening to deafen him.

But the _kirin_ did not seem to care that he was angry. It did not rise from where it knelt, but its eyes, luminous as twin stars, rolled upward toward him. Its regard was not without pity, but it was also hard and unyielding.

Once the_ kirin_ had chosen, the choice could not be unmade.

(_You ARE_.) The clarion voice rang out in his head. _(There is no denial. From a star of the heavens I was born, plucked from the dance of the firmament to descend. For you, I have come. For you, I kneel. You ARE.)_

"_What_ am I?" he demanded, "that the heavens should play this cruel game with me? Go! Choose some other if it pleases you. But do not bind me to that which I am loathe to be bound!"

The gaze of the white beast did not waiver.

(_Your father before you bound himself to these lands, and so to Reiyama. Now your time has come. If you do not accept it, then They shall.)_

Abruptly, his mind's eye was flooded with images of gray robes, of an army of sorcerers pouring forth from the valley and into the world with their legions of the enslaved. There was no need to ask who "They" were.

The _kirin_ tilted its silken head to one side, giving him the impression that it knew his reasons and did not care.

_(Accept it in hatred, if you will. They are yours, to destroy or to defend. You have been ordained.)_

"I have. . .power over them now," he said softly. A sense of this power stirred in his chest, warming him. "True power. With it. . .they can no longer threaten with their sorcery. If I choose to wield it. . .there are none left to stop me."

The light around him seemed to quicken its current, like wind rising, and the _kirin's_ eyes flashed.

(_Mark well: to become as your father was, you must cast aside this anger or it shall consume you and the ones you rule.)_

He was too incensed to fear the _kirin's_ wrath, and spoke down to it harshly.

"My _father's_ nobility earned him the peace of the grave while the Wise made slaves of his children! I _will not guard them_!"

The _kirin's_ horn lifted from the earth, glinting in the light.

_(It is not required that you withhold justice from those who have wronged you. Only take care that you do not follow the path of the sorcerers. . .)_

Once again, images flowed through his brain: moving through the city streets, so strewn with the dead that the road seemed paved with them. Then he saw, as if in parallel, gray robes moving through the empty streets, populated by none save souls entrapped---human and demon souls alike. And for the first time in many years, his heart was filled with horror at the sight. The sorcery of the Tatesei was an evil that should not be allowed to spread.

In this moment, he finally understood the magnitude of what it was that he was being asked to do.

"No, not asked," he murmured aloud. "_Chosen_. Is this not what I have always desired? That I should be chosen?"

(_To be a ruler is to avoid being ruled by your desires)_ the _kirin_ warned. (_Mark this well, if you would accept the power and the burden your father bore.)_

He lowered his head, so that his silver-white hair shaded his brow, and only the grim line of his mouth was visible. In this moment, with his mind laid bare before the _kirin's_ purity and wisdom, a strange peace settled over him like a mantle.

'_I have forgotten my father's honor_,' he admitted. '_But I will not do so again. It is not befitting that the son of so great a Youkai let his darker passions sway his heart from its true course.'_

Slowly, he lifted his head.

"Rise, _Kirin-sama_," he said softly, "for I accept."

Gracefully, the white beast unfolded its slender legs and rose to stand before him. Standing thus, it was as tall as he was.

_(I ordain thee, then, passing on to thee the rights granted to thee by blood and by honor) the kirin said. (To thee, Sesshoumaru; Lord of the West.)_

**

* * *

**

All assembled parties---the two princes, the Wise, Inuyasha, Miroku and Shippou---watched in shock as the_ kirin _knelt before the tall, bloodstained figure. As they gazed at him in speechless confusion, he seemed to be undergoing some kind of internal struggle. His fist clenched; his face contorted, going from wonder to rage to bitterness to calm. Through all of this the_ kirin_ knelt patiently, apparently awaiting some kind of answer from him. Then, at the last, he said in a soft, even voice: "Rise, _Kirin-sama_, for I accept."

Muttering broke out among the Wise, outraged and fearful.

"A Youkai has been chosen. Why? _Why_?"

"Is this heaven's judgment, visited upon us by the son of our enemies?"

"What the HELL?!" (This last was Inuyasha's.)

"It's---it's chosen Sesshoumaru?" Miroku had come to stand beside Inuyasha. "Amazing. . ."

"Stupid!" Shippou breathed, peering around Honechi's robes. "Does it WANT the Tatesei to be squashed like bugs?"

Yaburenumaru was the first to break the spell of stillness that had settled over them all. He could not speak because his demon form could not speak, but he let out a bellow of rage that clearly meant: "NO!" Then he lowered himself onto all fours, and his body convulsed. The _kirin's_ head turned to glance at him, and Sesshoumaru looked too, as if aware for the first time of his surroundings. The white demon stood calmly as the ball of flame surged toward him, scouring the ground and sizzling the air. Then, when it had come within a few feet of him, he brought up his hand and held it there, palm out. His hand flared green as the fire broke upon it and disappeared.

Then Sesshoumaru turned toward the Wise, not even waiting to see the somewhat subdued Yaburenumaru retreat backward a few steps. The sorcerers drew back, very much afraid. To the Wise, he said, "I am ruler here; you are bound to me. Release the souls."

Though his comrades' expressions were nervous, Honechi's face went dark with hatred. He glared at Sesshoumaru, and it seemed for a moment that he might dare to defy even his own ruler. But after a moment he said through clenched teeth, "As you wish." To his companions, he said, "Let it be so." The red light pulsating between his hand and Kagome's inert form flickered and dissipated.

The faces of the Tatesei sorcerers were very pale and frightened now. Their eyes were wide with new terror.

"Why are they so afraid?" Miroku mused. "Sesshoumaru's only ordered them to use their magic. After all, his rage seems to have abated. . ."

"'Cause they're gutless little goat-fuckers," Inuyasha snapped. Then, abruptly, he made a dash for the bank of the lake, heading for Kagome. "Outta my way!" he ordered Honechi, who readily stepped aside.

The High Priest nodded to his underlings and then raised his voice in song. At first he sang alone, his rich tenor echoing through the air against the stirring of the souls.

"Kagome," Inuyasha murmured, kneeling in the mud and reaching for her.

Honechi's comrades began to join him, hesitantly at first, but then with growing strength. The souls, already restless since Sesshoumaru's ordination, shifted and blurred as if caught in the wind.

Miroku hastened to Inuyasha's side.

"No," Inuyasha murmured, squeezing Kagome's wrist and pulling her into his arms.

"Inuyasha, give her to me," Miroku insisted. "I know a technique that might---"

"Kagome," Inuyasha said softly. Ignoring the monk, he pressed his face into her hair.

"He's not listening to you!" Shippou wailed, beating at Inuyasha's side with his tiny fists. "You've gotta make him listen!"

"Kagome," Inuyasha repeated brokenly.

"_Inuyasha_!" Miroku's staff descended over the _hanyou's_ head, landing with a thud. The unexpected blow left Inuyasha temporarily stunned, and the monk was able to wrest Kagome from him.

He laid her down on the cold, wet earth and knelt to push on her chest. Then he bent and pressed his lips to hers.

"HEY!" Shippou cried, now pelting Miroku with a rain of tiny punches. "You're supposed to HELP her, not MOLEST her!"

Miroku ignored him and repeated this process a few more times.

"She's still breathing," he told Shippou, when he came up for air. "But we have to get her conscious again or the cold water in her lungs will kill her."

The monk's reward for his services was a swift and unexpected punch delivered to the back of the head. As he toppled sideways, Inuyasha grabbed Kagome again and crushed her tightly against him.

"Hands OFF, _hentai_," he snapped.

The force with which Inuyasha had clasped Kagome to his chest put quite a bit of pressure on her diaphragm. Even as he spoke to Miroku, she spit up a great gout of icy water over his shoulder and into his hair. Inuyasha was too relieved to be disgusted. He wound both his arms around her shoulders and held her close as she proceeded to spit all of it out.

"Inuyasha," Miroku protested, sitting up and rubbing his head. "Stop being so violent! The technique was meant to expel the water from her lungs and to get air into them!" He paused, laying a thoughtful finger to his chin. "Though. . .I can't say that I didn't enjoy using it. . ." he added.

"That. . .song. . ." Kagome gasped, peering over Inuyasha's shoulder to see what was going on. "The. . .Wise. . .are. . .?"

"Try not to talk just yet," Inuyasha advised her.

"The _kirin_ came," Shippou piped in. "It must have its horn on crooked or something, because it ordained Sesshoumaru! He's making the Wise set the souls free!"

"Oh," Kagome breathed, frowning. "So _that's_ why I. . ." She broke off into a coughing fit.

"Why Honechi didn't get your soul," Shippou finished for her.

The song of the Wise rose in intensity and began to resonate in the hearts of all present, living and dead alike. It was not like the sorcerers' other spells of binding or destruction, but there was a strange, soaring sound to it that was so pure as to be almost gut-wrenching. The Youkai souls swirled around their captors, hissing and glowing. The faces of the Wise turned upward, and their eyes began to glimmer with a fey, golden brilliance.

Sesshoumaru watched silently, with a face now devoid of bitterness. The kirin still stood at his side, as if awaiting some further command from him. Asano stood listening to the song, unaware of the tears streaming down his cheeks. Yaburenumaru, who stood apart from the others, cried out suddenly and sank to his knees, clutching at his arms with both hands. He had regained his human form. The spirit of the salamander Youkai had come out of him, now exuding the same ghostly green translucence of the others the Wise had enslaved. Its lingered around the boy, and did not rise into the air as the other souls did.

"NO!" Yaburenumaru cried. "_Don't leave me_!"

The very flesh of the sorcerers was glowing now. Their faces shone eerily from the depths of their gray hoods. The song of the Wise soared into a crescendo, and then the Youkai spirits rose with it. Their forms blurred and melded into a swirling cloud of light, and the cloud rose higher and higher, until it disappeared through the veil of clouds.

Sesshoumaru, watching them, let out a long, slow sigh.

"NO!" Yaburenumaru repeated, stretching his arms upward toward the salamander spirit, which was rising to follow the Inu Youkai. He squeezed his eyes shut and shouted, "I WILL NOT BE DENIED!"

And then the Youkai spirit vanished.

As the light of the Youkai souls disappeared beyond the clouds, the skin of every sorcerer who had taken part in the casting of the spell glowed a brilliant white, outshining even the gold glimmering in their eyes. Though his comrades' faces remained upturned, Honechi lowered his head to glare at Sesshoumaru.

"THIS ISN'T OVER YET!" he cried. "THE TATESEI WILL ENDURE, BECAUSE YOU WERE NOT THE ONE CHOSEN---!" Honechi clutched at his chest as if in intense agony, unable to finish.

Sesshoumaru started toward the sorcerer, anger returning to his eyes for reasons that no one other than the _kirin_ understood.

But then the light faded. Every one of the Wise collapsed to the ground, and the white demon stopped his advance.

Miroku went over to look at Honechi and then announced to all present, "Dead." The monk surveyed the other sorcerers, lying prone on the ground. Their eyes had rolled back into their heads, flashing a sickly white. "All dead." He glanced over at Inuyasha and Kagome. "The Wise died because of the spell, I think. They had bound the souls to themselves so completely. . .that setting them free meant death."

"But why isn't Yaburenumaru dead?" Shippou asked, pointing to where the Tatesei prince stood. The boy's head was lowered, so that his lanky hair obscured his eyes. "He's used the same magic as the Wise. . ."

Sesshoumaru, upon hearing this, turned and flew at the prince so fast that his body blurred. But he stopped short as a small, slender form imposed itself between them.

"NO!" Asano cried, spreading out his hands to block Sesshoumaru's access to his brother. "Spare him! Please!"

Sesshoumaru did not lower his claws.

"Do you think me merciful?" he asked softly. "Do you think me a fool? That boy is a sorcerer."

"No," Asano protested, shaking his head vehemently. "The fact that he's alive proves that he wasn't consumed by the evils of the Wise. He wasn't so bound to sorcery that losing it meant losing his life!"

"Do not think that the freedom of my kin has made me soft," Sesshoumaru warned. "If I must take your life to take that creature's, then so be it."

"He is foolish," Asano murmured, refusing to move from where he stood. "He has let himself be seduced by the Wise. He's come all the way here to kill me, just to get the one thing he was never meant to have." The prince paused, swallowing hard, then said, "But he's my brother."

Slowly, Sesshoumaru lowered his hand. His gaze shifted over the boy's shoulder to the face of the prince behind him. His eyes narrowed.

"Thank you, Asano," Yaburenumaru said in a low, hoarse voice. "But I don't deserve this loyalty. For you are wrong. . .about one thing." He lifted his chin, and his hair fell away from his eyes. His face was hard and cold, and his eyes were red and full of malice. "I would never call a soft little brat like you my brother."

Fire flared outward from every pore of his flesh, reflecting in Asano's wide eyes and illuminating his shocked face. With demon speed, Yaburenumaru reached out with both arms to enfold his brother in a fiery embrace.

With demon speed, a blow knocked Asano to the ground, away from Yaburenumaru's grasp. He hit the earth so hard that it stunned him, and for a moment his vision blurred. When he looked up, he saw what had happened. Yaburenumaru sank to his knees, looking down to see Tetsusaiga's enormous hilt protruding from his chest. Inuyasha stood not twenty feet away, arm still raised from flinging the sword. Standing between Asano and his brother was Sesshoumaru.

"_You_---" Asano gasped, but Sesshoumaru wasn't in the mood for explanations.

Instead the white demon bent down, stretching out a hand toward Tetsusaiga.

"HEY!" Inuyasha bellowed, rushing toward them.

With one vicious tug, Sesshoumaru yanked the blade free of Yaburenumaru. However, even as he did so he let out a gasp as electricity crackled around his hand. Tetsusaiga clattered to the ground, its transformation reversed because he had touched it.

"HANDS OFF, JACKASS!" Inuyasha hollered at him, swooping down and catching the sword up again. Now that it was in the _hanyou's_ possession, the sword blazed into life once more. Sesshoumaru straightened but made no move to take it back. He merely stared at it, evidently mulling something over.

"I have been named lord of the West," he murmured, "and still the sword does not choose me."

"You're damn right it doesn't!" Inuyasha affirmed. "You're a real piece of work, you know that?! You've been named lord of the West and you still want the only thing I'VE got!"

"Hey!" Kagome called indignantly from the bank. "That sword's NOT the ONLY thing you've got!"

Shippou snickered at this, and Inuyasha blushed a little.

"Yaburenumaru," someone said softly.

Inuyasha half-turned to see Asano kneeling in front of his brother, clasping the dying boy by the shoulders. Yaburenumaru neither attacked him nor pushed him away, but slumped into his arms, already weak beyond supporting his own weight. His head lolled onto Asano's shoulder.

"Yaburenumaru," Asano repeated, taking one of his brother's hands in his own and clenching it tight. "I wonder. . .if. . .I wonder. . ."

"What is it you wonder?" Sesshoumaru asked dispassionately, looking away from Tetsusaiga and gazing at the city across the lake in an obvious effort look anywhere _but_ the sword.

"I wonder," Asano said with sudden anger, glancing up at the white demon, who stood with his cold, beautiful face averted. "What would have become of him. . .had _you _not brought him to this. . ."

Sesshoumaru said nothing. The _kirin_ was approaching him, silver eyes alight with wisdom---or was it judgment? A wind stirred between them---white beast and white demon---and for the briefest of moments Sesshoumaru's face darkened, as it had when the_ kirin_ first spoke to him.

"Do you know, Asano. . .why I killed that child in the northern village?" Yaburenumaru asked, his voice shaking from lack of breath and muffled against his brother's shoulder.

Asano's brow knitted, and his mouth tightened with pain, but he only answered, "No."

Making a faint noise of scorn or disapproval, Sesshoumaru turned his face away from the _kirin's_ blazing regard.

"Ahh," Yaburenumaru sighed, struggling for breath. "I. . .destroyed his face. . .because it resembled yours."

Then he breathed his last, and the fire went out of his eyes. Asano clutched Yaburenumaru even more tightly against himself as the demon spirit the prince had held inside him to the last shot toward the heavens in a glowing column of green. The force of the Youkai soul's exit stirred the robes of both boys---Asano's robes of rich and kingly raiment; his brother's worn to rags and stained with blood and filth.

And then, with the demon's passage, the light died.

With a sigh, Inuyasha sheathed his sword, while Sesshoumaru turned toward Asano.

"Stop your weeping, boy," Sesshoumaru admonished sternly. "Don't waste your sorrow on one who would not have wept for you."

Slowly, Asano loosened his hold until the dead prince had been lowered to the ground. In death, Yaburenumaru's face looked young and very small.

"Will you kill me now?" Asano asked without looking up. "Am I, too to be prey to your vengeance?"

Inuyasha's hand went to Tetsusaiga's hilt again, and he glared at his brother. There was a brief, tense pause.

Then Sesshoumaru answered, "No."

Asano raised his head to stare at the white demon in surprise.

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed, and he repeated, "No." The _kirin_ backed away slowly, inclining its luminous head. The white demon's expression was calm. "It was not myself that I wished to avenge. And that is done, for my kin have been freed. But I. . ." He frowned across the lake toward Reiyama, where some of those who survived his massacre stood on the rooftops to see what had transpired. "I have no desire to be king to a race of humans whom I detest. And so. . ."

Inuyasha's hand moved away from Tetsusaiga's hilt.

"Asano, I name you king here in my stead," Sesshoumaru declared, "You, boy, will rule the Tatesei as you see fit. However. . .do not think that I will ever allow Reiyama to be as it was. These lands are now mine; Reiyama is mine. I will watch you, prince of my enemies. I will leave the city, but I will also return in the hour when you least expect me. And when I come, if I see but one trace of the sorcery that has wrought so much evil. . .I swear to you that not even the innocent will draw breath when I have dealt with you."

Solemnly, Asano nodded, ignoring the tears that ran freely down his cheeks.

"I swear to do as you say," he replied. Then he seemed to draw himself up, straightening into the regal posture his people would expect of him. "I will return to the city," he said. "And tell them all that has happened here. And I will take these brave travelers with me." He nodded toward Shippou, Miroku and Kagome, who were still sitting on the bank.

The _kirin_, which had been watching silently throughout Sesshoumaru's proclamation, now lowered its head before him once more. This time, the jewel shard fell from its horn. It landed at Sesshoumaru's feet in the mud, where it glinted all the brighter. The white demon stared at it a moment, then picked it up and held it between the nails of his thumb and forefinger.

"Hey!" Kagome cried, running toward them.

"Kagome_-sama_, don't be rash!" Miroku cried, chasing after her. "You can't _fight_ him for it!"

"Wait for ME!" Shippou shouted, chasing both of them.

Kagome attempted to come to a halt at ten feet away from Sesshoumaru, but instead she skidded in the mud, went flying, and landed on her rump only five feet away.

"Er---" she stammered, intimidated now that her proximity was closer.

Sesshoumaru glared down at her, and Inuyasha stepped toward them both, gritting his teeth and preparing for the worst.

But after a moment the white demon only made a scornful noise and flung the shard down at her feet.

"I'm through wasting time with these fools," he sneered, then pointed a claw at Inuyasha. "Do _not_ think that this is over. I _will_ come for the sword, and when I do I _will_ make it choose me over you." This said, he pulled a sharp about-face and stalked off, long white hair stirring as he went. For a moment they all stood there, nonplussed.

Then Kagome and Inuyasha bent to pick up the shard at the same time and knocked heads.

"Ow!" Kagome exclaimed, but she was already pocketing the jewel fragment.

"Damnit!" Inuyasha swore. "You're so CLUMSY! I don't know WHY I put up with you!"

"Oh, _really_?" Kagome said, turning up her nose. "You had me in your _lap_ earlier. . ."

Inuyasha became extremely flustered and red-faced and backed away from her hastily.

"Well, I wouldn't have had to SAVE you if you weren't so STUPID!" he retorted, folding his arms and looking sulky. "Going diving for Tetsusaiga! You could've been KILLED!"

"Hey, Inuyasha, your head looks like a tomato," Shippou observed.

Fortunately for both Kagome and Shippou, Miroku was ready and managed to lock Inuyasha's arms behind his back to keep him from attacking.

Distracted as they all were by Inuyasha's outraged flailing and swearing, only Asano noticed that the _kirin_ had vanished.

**

* * *

**

Inuyasha's sullen mood lasted for the next four days. The four of them stayed at their room in the palace thanks to Asano's good graces, but after two nights of rest it became clear that Inuyasha was growing antsy.

"All this damn _sleeping_," he grumbled, "is _not_ going to find us more shards."

He was short-tempered and irritable for the next two days as they journeyed through the mountains and beyond the valley. This, of course, might have been related to Shippou's endless recounting of how Kagome had been revived. The story made Kagome blush furiously, and finally she took a leaf from Inuyasha's book and threatened the Kitsune with bodily harm if he refused to shut up. Inuyasha's mood improved considerably after this; Miroku's was dampened somewhat. The monk had apparently been quite proud of his little mouth-to-mouth demonstration and had not objected to hearing about it over and over again.

Kagome walked alongside Inuyasha now that he was in better spirits.

"Hey," she said, smiling. "My cold's gone!"

"Huh," was all he said in reply.

Kagome's expression softened. She could see that he was deep in thought, and she could take a pretty good guess what he was thinking about.

"It must have been hard for you, staying in Reiyama," she told him sympathetically. "I know it must've hurt being around the people who were once so cruel to you."

Inuyasha shrugged.

"Well, yeah," he admitted. "But it wasn't _all_ bad. That room we were staying in at the palace. . .I didn't tell you before, but those were the quarters I shared with my mother."

Kagome, surprised by this revelation, lapsed into thoughtful silence. She tried to imagine Inuyasha and his mother sitting on those marble walkways, watching the sun set over the lake. She tried to picture him as a baby, asleep in the princess' arms in the bedchamber. But for some reason, she kept remembering waking up to find Inuyasha holding her in his arms very tightly, while Shippou or Miroku asked something on the order of, "Are you done yet?" Her face burned, and to banish _that_ particular incident she began thinking about what would happen to the Tatesei now.

"You're okay with leaving the Tatesei in Sesshoumaru's control, aren't you?" she asked him, peering up at him to see his face because he was trying to conceal his expression beneath his long white bangs.

"I don't know," Inuyasha muttered. "I guess." He gave up and raised his head, looking pensive. "Y'know, I think whatever it was the_ kirin_ said to him, it changed his mind about things. Not just the first time, when he chose to be ordained, but there was another time, too. I think the second time it convinced him to spare Asano and make him king."

Kagome laid a thoughtful finger on the side of her mouth.

"You know," she mused, "I think you may be right." There was a bit of innocent surprise in her tone that raised Inuyasha's hackles.

"Hey!" Inuyasha protested, folding his arms and looking cross. "Don't say that like I'm hardly ever right!"

Kagome was slightly taken aback.

"I'm sorry," she told him. "Anyway, do you really trust Sesshoumaru not to change his mind and finish the massacre he started?"

Inuyasha pondered this for a while. Birds twittered in the trees overhead; the rains, it seemed, were over.

"It's weird, but I _do_," he finally answered, staring up through the interlacing branches. "You know, he's an asshole, but never in my life have I known him to lie."

Recalling her few past experiences with Sesshoumaru, Kagome nodded slowly. As they walked, she painstakingly withdrew her map from her backpack. She had a hunch, and she wanted to see if it was correct. Studying the map, she saw that it was.

"Wow," she said, holding it up to the light and squinting at it. "The city of Reiyama has appeared on my historical map. This means that the Tatesei still existed in the late feudal era, because the map-maker marked them as a city. There's even a road going toward it through the mountains. I guess this means Reiyama _will_ be okay in Sesshoumaru's hands---at least for a while. . ."

"Oy," Inuyasha said, speaking out of the side of his mouth.

"What?" Kagome re-rolled the map and tucked it away again.

"That day, I thought you were going to die," he muttered.

Bracing herself, Kagome thought, _'He's going to chew me out, or worse: he'll tell me to stay in my time again. . ._'

"I'm sorry I let that happen," Inuyasha said quietly.

Kagome glanced off to the side, blushing.

"If I hadn't gotten you into this, none of that crap would've happened," he continued, making her blush deepen. "I'm sorry. It just makes me so _mad_. . ."

"Th-thank you," Kagome stammered. "But you don't have to be mad at yourself for---"

Inuyasha slammed his left fist into his right palm.

"When you were by the lake, the damn monk's lips were fucking ALL OVER your face!" he growled.

"WHAT?!" Kagome exploded. "THAT'S what you're mad about?!"

"Yeah," he replied, looking sullen.

Kagome sighed heavily, getting her exasperation under control. After a while, she said, "I'm sorry I made you worry. I'll try not to do it again."

Inuyasha didn't answer, but Kagome was almost positive she saw him smile in relief.

* * *

**# # # Epilogue # # #**

More days passed, until finally they reached the village near the Well. Throughout the return journey, Kagome had tried valiantly to avoid complaining, but the pain in her arm was very bad. She had run out of aspirin by the fourth day out of Reiyama. By the time they reached Kaede's she was dead set on going home, with no further adventures until she was completely recovered.

She stole away to the Bone-Eaters' Well by herself, not wanting _anyone_ to delay her, because enough was enough.

Thus it came as a rather unpleasant surprise for her to see Inuyasha seated cross-legged on the well's rim.

"Oy," he greeted her. "Thought you'd fucking get away with it, did you?"

"Thought. . .I'd. . .get. . .away. . .with. . .WHAT?!" Kagome asked, clutching her backpack with her good arm and preparing to make a run for it. There were ten feet between her and the well, but if Inuyasha moved with his demon speed he'd intercept her for sure. . .

"Leaving without me," he said simply. "You see, Kaede told me that you're supposed to take care of sick people. I got too distracted during the trip to do that."

"But I'm not sick any more!" Kagome insisted, waving her good hand frantically in the air and trying to put on a cheerful face. "So it's no problem!"

Inuyasha unfolded his legs and got down from the rim of the well.

"Well, now you're _injured_," he told her. "Injuries are a lot less gross than spewing snot out your nose. So I'm gonna come to your house to take care of you."

"Ack!" Kagome sputtered. "You will NOT!"

She made a mad dash for the well, but Inuyasha caught her by the backpack straps and stopped her in her tracks.

"Yes, I _am_," he informed her, glaring.

Before Kagome could utter another word, he scooped her up in his arms, backpack and all, and jumped into the well. As they descended, she briefly considered beating at him with her one good fist, but then thought better of it because he might drop her.

"Hey," Inuyasha said as the light of time passage enveloped them both. "At your house, do you have any more of the crunchy brown stuff?"

* * *

**# # # Epilogue, Part Deux # # #**

Sesshoumaru stood atop the mountain, staring down at the city below. The cold wind ruffled his hair and stung his eyes, but as always he did not care. The _kirin's_ last words echoed in his memory.

(_Honechi spoke truly. This is not over, for though I chose you, you are not the one chosen in prophecy. If you will not rule the city, then choose a king who will. But do not abandon the Tatesei. It is dangerous to do so---far more dangerous than you know.)_

To the cold night, Sesshoumaru now asked the same questions he had asked then.

"Why does this prophecy the Wise spoke of mention Inuyasha? Why did they fear him so?"

_(If you would know)_ the _kirin_ had answered, _(then take this Shikon shard and use it to find the Seer.) _

But Sesshoumaru had cast the shard away, giving it to the girl who traveled with Inuyasha. His blood was pure and strong, and he neither needed nor desired the Shikon Jewel. His vengeance had been enough, he told himself. The only other thing he required was Tetsusaiga.

"The Seer? Why should I waste my time seeking another sorcerer?" he murmured. "The _only_ reason they call my weak little half-brother _'chosen'_ is that sword. Once Tetsusaiga is mine, he will be _nothing_."

Yet small, nagging doubts tugged slyly at his thoughts. '_Is that it?_' they whispered. _'Is that all? The sword is the ONLY answer to these riddles?'_

"I am the lord of the West," Sesshoumaru said aloud, to silence them. "There is none other so worthy as I. Least of all Inuyasha. . ."

Having said this, he turned and descended down into the high valley that enclosed his home. He would go and make ready for another journey. It was time to go see a dragon about an arm. . .

* * *

**# # # Epilogues Forever! # # #**

**Inuyasha**: "Hey, the _kirin's_ heading this way!"

**Sesshoumaru: ". . ."**

**Inuyasha**: "It chose YOU?! Is it on CRACK?!"

**Sesshoumaru** (to _kirin_): "Go away before I disembowel you."

**_Kirin_:** ignore ignore nuzzles at Sesshoumaru

**Sesshoumaru:** sidesteps to avoid it

**_Kirin:_** sidesteps to intercept him

**Kagome:** "Wow! It's so beautiful and cuddly!" throws arms around its neck

**_Kirin:_** still pursuing Sesshoumaru, now dragging Kagome with it

**Inuyasha** (addressing _kirin_): "Hey, where the fuck are you taking her, you horny beast?!" draws Tetsusaiga

**Sesshoumaru: ". . ."** avoid avoid

**Kagome:** "Kawaii!" squeeze hug

**Inuyasha:** strikes _kirin_ with Tetsusaiga

**Tetsusaiga:** BOUNCE (bounces off_ kirin_ as if _kirin_ were made of steel)

**Inuyasha:** "Damnit! How do we get this thing to go away?!"

**Shippou:** (watching with interest) "Hey, Sesshoumaru, I think it LIKES you. Huh! Who would've known?"

**Sesshoumaru:** ". . ." worried now

**Miroku:** "Fascinating! A _kirin_! approaches it

**_Kirin:_** sweat drop

**Miroku**: reaches out hand toward it

**Kirin**: more sweat drops

**Miroku:** within inches of touching it

**_Kirin:_** !!!!!!! lashes out and kicks Miroku in the groin, then runs like hell

**Sesshoumaru:** very relieved

**Kagome** (aghast): "MIROKU!"

**Inuyasha:** sheathes Tetsusaiga "Well, REALLY, it shouldn't be THAT much of a surprise. . ."

**END OF CHAPTER 13 AND END OF STORY**

_Yamisui: "The Bearers of the Shards" is over, but the STORY sure isn't. Look for its companion, coming very soon: "Lord of the West." Though the title may suggest otherwise, the story will NOT be completely Sesshoumaru-centric. But he will be in it, of course. _

_Because I like him. _

_Because I like to mess with readers' heads (kukuku). . ._


End file.
